ll'^lllr?lmMll,?lm9/^^"'°'''^'^  san  diego 


3  1822  03097  4869 


WWi^VfO^'  CALIFORNIA,  SAN  DilGO      .^o 
lA  jQUu\r  CALiFORNIA 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  SAN  DIEGO 


^jj^'<r\r-a,  /o-    ou- 


The  Lollards  of  the 
Chiltern  Hills 

Glimpses  of  English  Dissent  in  the  Middle  Ages 


By 
W.   H.   SUMMERS 

Author  of  **  Our  Lollard  Ancestors,"  "  Memories  of  Jordans 
and  the  Chalfonts/'  &c. 


London 
FRANCIS    GRIFFITHS 

34    Maiden    Lane,    Strand,    W.C. 
1906 


/ 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER     I 
Saintly  Legends  .....  i 

CHAPTER     II 
Monastic  Houses  IN  Buckinghamshire  .  .  lo 

CHAPTER     III 
Religious  Life  in  the  Middle  Ages     ...  19 

CHAPTER     IV 
The  Rector  of  Ludgershall    ....  28 

CHAPTER    V 
The  Early  Days  of  Loli.ardy  ...  41 

CHAPTER     VI 
The  Fall  of  the  Older  Lollardy       ...  49 

CHAPTER     VII 
U.vDER  the  White  Rose  of  York  ...  65 

CHAPTER     VIII 
The  Revival  of  Lollardy         ....  74 

CHAPTER     IX 
Three  Lollard  Teachers  and  their  Fate      .  .  78 

CHAPTER     X 
The  Great  Abjuration  ....  90 

iii 


iv  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER     XI 
John  Foxe  and  the  Longland  Register  .  .  103 

CHAPTER     XII 

The  Justfast  Men  of  Amersham  .  .  .  109 

CHAPTER     XIII 
More  of  the  Justfast  Men  .        .  .  .  124 

CHAPTER     XIV 

The  Argument  of  Fire  and  Faggot     .  .  .  137 

CHAPTER     XV 
LoLLARDY  Passing  into  Protestantism  .  .  143 

CHAPTER     XVI 

The  Last  of  the  Loi.lard  Martyrs      .  .  .  151 

CHAPTER     XVII 
The  Turn  of  the  Tide   .....  160 

CHAPTER     XVIII 
John  Knox  in  Buckinghamshire  .  .  .  173 


PKEFACE 

In  the  following  pages,  an  attempt  has  been 
made  to  illustrate  from  the  records  of  a  single 
county  the  course  of  a  religious  movement  the 
influence  of  which  upon  the  story  of  the  English 
people  has  been  much  more  deep  and  far-reaching 
than  is  usually  supposed. 

The  writer  was  first  led  to  take  up  the  subject 
by  the  interest  he  felt  in  listening  to  curious  local 
traditions  of  the  Lollard  times,  still  extant  in 
the  old  abodes  of  the  "  Known  Men  "  in  Buck- 
inghamshire, while  he  was  for  several  years  a 
resident  in  the  district.  In  the  year  1888,  a 
series  of  articles  from  his  pen,  upon  the  "  Lollards 
of  Bucks,"  appeared  in  a  local  paper,  the  South 
Bucks  Free  Press.  But  he  was  then  under  the 
great  disadvantage  of  being  dependent  for  nearly 
all  his  facts  upon  the  statements  of  that  much 
discredited  writer,  John  Foxe,  and  was  not  aware 
to  what  a  remarkable  extent  Foxe's  statements, 
with  regard  to  Buckinghamshire  at  any  rate,  are 
confirmed  and  illustrated  by  independent  autho- 
rities. 

A  very  large  number  of  writers  have  been 
consulted  in  the  preparation  of  the  work  ;  and 
in  most  cases  the  names  of  these  are  given.    But 


vi  PREFACE 

as  the  work  is  intended  for  popular  use,  extracts 
from  the  Latin  are  given  in  an  Enghsh  trans- 
lation, and  old  English  is  modernised  where  it 
is  likely  to  present  a  difficulty.  The  references 
to  books  and  documents,  however,  will  enable 
those  who  wish  to  do  so  to  consult  the  original 
text  for  themselves. 

Some  of  the  matter  contained  in  the  earlier 
chapters  may  at  first  sight  seem  somewhat  irrele- 
vant, as  relating  to  North  Bucks,  where  Lollardy 
never  appears  to  have  gained  a  footing  ;  but  it  will 
be  found  that  these  passages  often  refer  to 
institutions  and  localities  to  which  allusion  is 
made  in  the  later  chapters. 

In  conclusion,  the  writer  desires  to  express  his 
obligation  to  a  number  of  gentlemen  who  have 
assisted  him  with  valuable  information  and 
suggestions.  Among  these  he  may  mention  Mr. 
C.  Guthrie,  K.C.,  Procurator  of  the  United  Free 
Church  of  Scotland  ;  the  late  Eev.  P.  W.  Phipps, 
M.A.,  rector  of  Chalfont  St.  Giles  ;  Mr.  J.  Cheese, 
of  Amersham  ;  and  especially  Dr.  F.  J.  Furnivall, 
who  has  allowed  him  to  make  use  of  some 
"  confessions  of  heresy,"  copied  for  the  use  of 
the  Early  English  Text  Society,  though  unfortu- 
nately not  yet  published  in  a  complete  form, 
owing  to  the  scanty  support  accorded  by  the  public 
to  that  excellent  organisation. 


The  Lollards  of  the  Chiltern  Hills 


CHAPTEK   I 

SAINTLY  LEGENDS 

"  Now  it  is  no  small  praise  to  Buckinghamshire, 
tb.at  being  one  of  the  lesser  counties  of  England, 
it  had  more  martyrs  and  confessors  in  it  before 
the  time  of  Luther  than  all  the  kingdom  besides  " 

So  says  Thomas  Fuller  {ChurcJi  History,  book 
v.,  chap,  i.)  ;  and  though  his  statement  is  perhaps 
not  literally  correct,  it  may  fitly  serve  to  intro- 
duce the  story  of  the  Buckinghamshire  Lollards. 
Before  entering  on  that  stoiy,  however,  it  may 
be  well  to  sketch  the  earlier  conditions  of 
religious  life  among  which  they  arose. 

Scarcely  any  traditions  survive  of  the  intro- 
duction of  the  faith  of  Christ  into  this  part  of 
England.  Some  have  seen  a  memorial  of  Saxon, 
if  not  of  Celtic,  piety,  in  the  crosses  cut  out  in 
the  turf  of  the  Chiltern  Hills  at  Whiteleaf  and 
Bledlow,  above  the  ancient  British  road  of  the 
Icknield    Way.     But  these  are   probably   of   far 

1 


2  THE    LOLLAEDS 

later  origin  ;  though  the  Puritan  dislike  to  the 
sign  of  the  cross  makes  it  difficult  to  accept  the 
suggestion  of  the  late  Mr.  E.  J.  Payne  that  the 
Whiteleaf  Cross  was  a  landmark  cut  out  by  the 
Parliamentary  soldiers. 

The  Eev.  T.  Williams,  in  an  interesting 
article  in  the  Records  of  Buckinghamshire  for 
1896,  considers  it  likely  that  the  earliest  apostle 
of  the  county  in  Saxon  days  was  Birinus,  the 
founder  of  the  see  of  Dorchester  (Oxon),  whose 
name  survives  in  Berin's  Hill,  near  Ipsden,  five 
or  six  miles  from  the  county  boundary,  where 
he  is  said  to  have  had  a  cell,  and  perhaps  in 
Bicester  (Buringceastre).  He  died,  says  the 
legend,  from  the  bite  of  an  adder  on  the  Chiltern 
Hills,  upon  December  3rd,  650.  (Adders  did  not 
hybernate   in    those   days,   it   would  seem  !) 

The  Chiltern  country,  then  and  for  centuries 
after,  was  a  vast  forest  of  beeches  and  other 
trees,  the  haunt  of  the  wolf,  the  boar,  and  the 
wild  ox,  and  of  robbers  and  outlaws  yet  more 
dreaded.  The  credit  of  making  the  forest 
passable  for  wayfarers  is  given  to  Leofstan, 
Abbot  of  St.  Albans,  in  the  days  of  Ed- 
ward the  Confessor.  He  opened  up  roads,  and 
appointed  men-at-arms  to  patrol  the  forest.  It 
was  the  need  of  guarding  this  wild  region  that 
gave  rise  to  the  well-known  office  of  "  steward 
of  the  Chiltern  Hundreds."  But  the  wild  and 
beautiful  scenery  which  characterises  South 
Bucks  fostered  good  as  well  as  evil  elements  of 
character.    Alike  in  the  days  of  the  Lollards,  in 


SAINTLY   LEGENDS  3 

the  Keformation  period,  and  in  the  days  of  the 
Civil  War,  the  men  of  the  Chiltern  Hundreds, 
John  Hampden's  country,  were  foremost  in  the 
struggle  against  civil  and  ecclesiastical  despotism, 
while  those  of  the  flatter  district  to  the  north 
of  the  hills  were,  as  a  rule,  more  disposed  to 
yield  to  constituted  authority. 

When  Birinus  landed  in  634,  only  fifty-four 
j^ears  had  elapsed  since  the  Saxons  took 
Aylesbury.  But  it  is  quite  uncertain  whether 
any  relics  of  British  Christianity  remained,  and 
certainly  heathenism  was  fully  established  in  the 
district.  Mr.  Payne,  in  an  article  in  Gibbs' 
Buckinghamshire  Miscellany,  thinks  that  Woden 
was  worshipped  at  Waddesdon,  Thor  at  Turville, 
Hilda  at  Hillesden,  and  ^gil,  the  sun-god,  at 
Aylesbury.  Mr.  Williams,  however,  derives  the 
name  of  the  county  town  from  the  British  Eglwys, 
a  church,  and  thinks  that  one  already  stood  there. 
Soon,  at  any  rate,  the  county  was  so  far  Chris- 
tianised as  to  have  saints  of  its  own.  Prominent 
among  these  was  that  marvellous  infant  St. 
Pumbold  or  Romwald,  a  grandchild  of  Penda  of 
Mercia,  born  at  King's  Sutton  in  Northampton- 
shire, but  buried  at  Buckingham.  The  legend, 
quaintly  and  contemptuously  told  by  Fuller  in 
his  WortJiics  of  England,  narrates  how  he  cried 
three  times,  "  I  am  a  Christian,"  as  soon  as  he 
was  born;  how  he  asked  to  be  baptized,  choosing 
his  name  and  god-parents ;  how  he  pointed  out 
a  hollow  stone  to  be  used  as  the  font,  which  none 
but   his  godfathers    were    able    to    lift ;  how    he 


4  THE    LOLLAEDS 

spent  three  days  in  pious  discourse,  and  then  died, 
having  ordered  that  his  body  should  remain  at 
Sutton  one  year,  at  Brackley  two  years,  and  at 
Buckingham  ever  after.  The  fame  of  the  child- 
saint  spread  far  and  wide,  and  in  the  Middle 
Ages  his  shrine  in  Buckingham  parish  church 
was  the  resort  of  numerous  pilgrims,  for  whose 
accommodation  a  large  hostelry  known  as 
"Pilgrim's  Inn,"  which  was  standing  at  the 
close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  was  erected. 
The  town  had  a  "  St.  Rumbold's  Street,"  and 
a  "Guild  of  St.  Rumbold,"  incorporated  by 
Henry  VI.;  and  also  several  holy  wells,  the 
supposed  efficacy  of  which  in  healing  the  blind 
and  the  lame  was  ascribed  to  the  merits  of  the 
samt.  There  were  also  "  Wells  of  St.  Rumbold  " 
at  King's  Sutton  and  Brackley,  and  a  famous 
image  of  him  at  Bexley  in  Kent.  This  last,  like 
the  Holy  Grail  that  Sir  Lancelot  might  not  see, 
was  a  test  of  chastity,  for  none  but  the  pure  in 
heart  and  life  could  lift  it.  The  fact  was,  it  is 
said,  that  it  was  fastened  by  a  peg  behind,  which 
was  only  removed  for  those  who  had  been  liberal 
enough  in  their  offerings. 

Aylesbury,  as  well  as  Buckingham,  had  its 
saints  in  Saxon  times.  Eadburg  and  Eaditha, 
the  daughters  of  Frith wald,  a  Mercian  under-king, 
are  said  to  have  received  Aylesbury  as  a  gift  from 
their  father,  and  to  have  taken  the  veil  in  a 
convent  there.  St.  Eadburg  died  at  Aylesbury, 
but  her  body  was  afterwards  removed  to  Edburton 
in  Suffolk,  where  miracles  were  said  to  have  been 


SAINTLY   LEGENDS  5 

wrought  at  her  tomb.  The  story  of  St.  Osyth  or 
Sithe,  sister  or  niece  of  Eadburg  and  Eaditha, 
comes  before  us  in  a  most  shadowy  form.  She 
is  said  to  have  been  born  at  Quarrendon,  at  a 
period  variously  stated  ;  to  have  been  educated 
at  Ellesborough  ;  to  have  been  compelled  by  her 
father  to  marry  Sigebert,  King  of  East  Angha  ; 
to  have  taken  the  veil,  and  founded  St.  Osyth's 
monastery,  near  Colchester,  where  she  remained 
as  abbess  for  many  years ;  and  to  have  been 
beheaded  by  Danish  pirates.  The  corpse  of  the 
virgin  martyr  was  brought  to  Aylesbury,  remained 
there  and  worked  miracles  for  forty-six  years, 
and  was  then  taken  back  to  St.  Osyth's  Abbey,  the 
fear  of  Danish  incursions  having  ceased  for  a 
time.  At  Bierton,  close  to  Aylesbury,  was  a  well 
of  St.  Osyth,  now  known  as  "  Up  Town  Well." 

The  old  chronicler  Eoger  of  Wendover  tells  of 
a  St.  Ulfric  or  Wulfric,  who  lived  at  Aylesbury 
(unless  Aylesbeere  in  Devonshire  is  really  meant), 
under  Henry  I.,  but  was  of  Saxon  blood.  From 
being  a  worldly  priest,  fond  of  his  hawks  and 
hounds,  he  became  a  rigorous  ascetic,  clad  in  a 
single  hair-cloth  garment  or  iron  cuirass,  eating 
no  flesh,  and  speaking  to  no  one  save  through  a 
grated  window.  We  are  told  that  by  his  sanctity 
and  prayers  he  even  rescued  an  unhappy  north - 
countryman,  who  had  sold  his  soul  to  the  enemy 
of  mankind  ! 

Another  Saxon  saint  who  became  the  object  of 
special  reverence  in  Buckinghamshire  was 
Wulstan,  Bishop  of  Worcester,  who,  in  consider- 


6  THE    LOLLAKDS 

ation  of  his  fidelity  to  William  the  Conqueror, 
was  allowed  to  retain  his  diocese  after  the  other 
Saxon  bishops  had  been  deprived,  and  was 
reverenced  throughout  the  country  as  a  living 
link  with  the  days  of  Edward  the  Confessor.  In 
1076,  however,  he  was  cited  before  a  great  council 
at  Westminster,  as  "  insufficient  for  his  place 
for  want  of  learning."  On  his  way,  he  passed 
through  High  Wycombe.  The  house  in  which 
he  lodged  being  in  an  insecure  condition,  an  alarm 
was  raised  that  it  was  giving  way,  and  his 
servants  rushed  forth  in  terror.  Wulstan, 
however,  remained  to  the  last,  and  quietly  left 
the  house  just  before  it  fell.  An  exhibition  of 
self-control  like  this  seemed  nothing  short  of 
miraculous  to  that  superstitious  age,  but  it  was 
fully  in  keeping  with  his  conduct  before  the 
council.  He  was  declared  incapable  of  exercising 
his  functions,  and  was  summoned  by  William  to 
surrender  his  staff  and  ring.  Thereupon  he  laid 
his  staff  on  the  tomb  of  Edward  the  Confessor, 
saying,  "  Thou,  O  holy  Edward,  gavest  me  this 
staff,  and  to  thee  I  restore  it."  Then  turning 
to  the  Norman  prelates  and  lords,  he  calmly  said, 
"  I  received  my  staff  from  a  better  man  than  any 
of  you,  and  to  him  I  have  returned  it.  Take  it 
from  him  if  you  can."  The  impression  produced 
on  the  council  was  so  great  that  Wulstan  was  left 
in  the  undisturbed  enjoyment  of  his  bishopric. 
On  his  way  back  to  his  diocese  his  friends  in 
Buckinghamshire  received  him  with  enthusiasm. 
They  would  doubtless  be  quite  prepared  to  receive 


SAINTLY    LEGENDS  7 

the  story  that  was  noised  abroad,  that  Wulstan's 
staff  had  penetrated  the  stone  of  Edward's  tomb, 
and  lodged  there  so  that  no  one  could  move  it 
but  Wulstan  himself.     For  it  was  believed  that 
Edward,  among  many  other  miracles,  had  restored 
to    sight    a    Buckinghamshire    man,   Wulwin    of 
Ludgershall ;    and     had     not    Wulstan     himself 
miraculously  escaped  from   the   falling  house    at 
Wycombe?     Accordingly,  he  was  asked  to  conse- 
crate Wycombe  parish  church,  which   was  then 
being  built  at  the  expense  of  a  wealthy   Saxon 
thane.      Having    obtained    the    consent    of    the 
Norman  diocesan  Remigius,  Wulstan  came  and 
consecrated  the  church.     Later  tradition  asserted 
that  on  this  occasion  he  healed  an  afflicted  girl 
with  a  piece  of  gold  which  had  been  touched  by 
the  Holy  Lance  (the  spear  which  had  pierced  the 
Saviour's  side)  ;  but  unfortunately  this  was  before 
the  Holy  Lance  had  been  found  at  Antioch.    On 
another    occasion,    the    bishop    visited    INIarlow. 
According  to  William  of  Malmesbury,  in  his  Vita 
Savcti  Wulstani,  he  found  the  roads  in  a  frightful 
state,  the  weather  having  been  very   wet.     The 
clergy  who  served  the  parish  church  were  some- 
what reluctant  to  turn  out  to  matins  in  the  cold, 
cheerless    early    morning.       Wulstan,    however, 
insisted  on  their  coming  with  him.    They  led  him 
round   by   the   miriest   road   they   could  find,   in 
order  to  force  him  to  turn  back,  but  the  sturdy 
bishop  trudged   on   through    the   mud,    with   the 
loss  of  one  of  his  episcopal  shoes.     After  saying 
matins  in  the  church,  he  went  back  to  breakfast, 


8  THE    LOLLARDS 

and  then,  without  any  expression  of  annoyance 
or  complaint,  quietly  sent  two  priests  in  search 
of  the  missing  shoe  ! 

One  more  Buckinghamshire  saint,  of  later  date, 
but  probably  also  of  Saxon  blood,  may  here  be 
mentioned.  Master  John  Shorne,  or  Schorne, 
rector  of  North  Marston  from  1290  till  his  death 
in  1314,  was  renowned  far  and  near  for  his  piety 
and  his  miraculous  powers.  It  was  beheved  that, 
like  another  St.  James,  he  had  caused  his  knees 
to  become  hard  and  horny  by  the  frequency  of  his 
prayers.  But  more  marvellous  still,  he  was 
believed,  when  sore  tempted  by  the  Evil  One, 
to  have  imprisoned  the  enemy  in  one  of  his  boots  ! 
— "  which  astounding  miracle  raised  him  to  the 
dignity  of  a  saint,  and  won  for  him  the  veneration 
of  centuries."  Though  he  was  never  actually 
canonised,  his  shrine,  which  was  removed  in  1478 
to  St.  George's  Chapel,  Windsor,  became  the 
resort  of  such  multitudes  that  their  offerings  are 
said  to  have  amounted  to  £500  per  annum, 
representing  fifteen  or  twenty  times  that  amount 
in  present  values.  There  seems  also  to  have  been 
an  image  of  him  at  Long  Marston,  much  resorted 
to  by  pilgrims;  and  a  well  in  the  village,  which 
still  bears  hie  name,  and  is  remarkable  for  its 
purity  and  coldness,  was  said  to  have  sprung  up 
in  answer  to  his  prayers  in  time  of  drought. 

Absurd  as  some  of  these  legends  now  appear, 
there  is  one  interesting  point  to  be  noted  about 
them.  The  saints  associated  with  and  most 
honoured    in     Buckinghamshire     were     English 


SAINTLY    LEGENDS  9 

saints — not,  as  in  some  counties,  Celtic,  or 
Roman,  or  Norman.  Their  stories  point  to  a 
vigorous  sense  of  Saxon  nationality,  which  had 
not  a  little  to  do  with  preparing  the  way  for  the 
Lollard  movement.  Dr.  Stoughton,in  his  Church 
of  the  Civil  Wars  (page  52),  remarks  that  "  the 
plain  and  sturdy  nature  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  " 
always  leaned  to  "a  simple  and  unostentatious 
kind  of  religious  worship,"  and  was  "unfriendly  to 
that  ecclesiastical  pomp  of  architecture  and 
glittering  ritual  which  delighted  the  Norman." 
There  is  much  truth  in  his  further  statement, 
that  "  traditional  opinions  and  sentiments, 
opposed  to  the  spirit  of  Eomanism,  had  been 
handed  down  through  the  Middle  Ages,  from  one 
generation  to  another  of  the  English  commonalty 
in  their  homesteads  and  cottages,"  and  that 
"  those  opinions  and  sentiments  contributed  to  the 
outbursts  of  Lollardism."  Even  where  the  Saxon 
accepted  the  teachings  of  the  Roman  Church,  he 
gave  them  a  colouring  of  his  own. 


CHAPTER  II 

MONASTIC   HQUSES    IN   BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 

The  ecclesiastical  antiquities  of  this  county  are 
far  less  extensive  and  splendid  than  those  of  many 
others.  Buckinghamshire  never  had  any  great 
abbey,  like  Glastonbury  or  St.  Edmundsbury,  nor 
any  great  collegiate  foundation  before  Eton  arose 
under  Henry  VI.  Yet  it  was  at  Winslow,  where, 
as  at  Brill  and  Cippenham,  the  kings  of  Mercia 
had  a  palace,  that  Offa  planned  the  foundation  of 
the  mighty  Abbey  of  St.  Albans.  Matthew  Paris 
tells  how  a  sudden  light  illuminated  the  oratory 
where  bishops  and  priests,  in  response  to  the  king's 
tearful  entreaty,  were  seeking  the  Divine  guid- 
ance, and  how  he  resolved  to  endow  the  abbey 
w^ith  the  royal  manor  of  Winslow,  which  con- 
tinued to  belong  to  it  until  the  Dissolution. 

There  are  few  remains  of  Saxon  church  archi- 
tecture, beyond  some  stone- work  at  Iver,  Wing, 
and  Lavendon,  and  the  tower  of  Caversfield 
church  (formerly  in  Bucks,  but  now  in  Oxford- 
shire). Domesday  Book  shows  very  little  land  as 
belonging  to  the  Church  in  this  county,  and  men- 
tions no  religious  house  except  one  at  North 
Crawley,  founded  under  Edward  the  Confessor, 

10 


MONASTIC   HOUSES  11 

and  dedicated,  like  the  parish  church,  to  St. 
Firmin,  Bishop  of  Amiens.  It  probably  became 
extinct  at  an  early  date. 

In  Saxon  times,  Buckinghamshire  was  part  of 
the  diocese  of  Dorchester  (Oxon).  To  this  was 
afterwards  annexed  that  of  Sidnacester  in  Lincoln- 
shire, when  it  became  of  enormous  extent, 
reaching  from  the  Thames  to  the  Humber,  and  in- 
cluding seven  archdeaconries.  After  the  Norman 
Conquest,  Eemigius  de  Fechamp,  "  a  dwarf  in 
stature  but  a  giant  in  soul,"  and  a  friend  of  the 
great  Lanfranc,  removed  the  see  from  Dorchester 
to  Lincoln,  to  which  diocese  Bucks  continued  to 
belong  till  1845. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  eleventh  century, 
under  William  II.,  a  Cluniac  priory  arose  at  Tick- 
ford,  near  Newport  Pagnell,  as  a  branch  or 
"  cell  "  of  the  great  Abbey  of  Marmonstiers,  or 
St.  Martin,  at  Tours.  This  was  one  of  the  "  alien 
priories,"  in  which  French  monks  came  to  reside, 
who  collected  the  revenues,  and  transmitted  them 
to  the  parent  house.  Not  an  unnatural  arrange- 
ment when  the  English  kings  had  possessions  on 
the  Continent,  this  became  a  very  obnoxious  one 
in  later  days,  when  war  arose  between  England 
and  France,  and  after  many  interferences  on  the 
part  of  the  Crown,  the  alien  priories  were  at  last 
suppressed  by  Henry  V. 

Under  Henry  I.  (1100-1135)  a  Benedictine  or 
Cluniac  priory  appears  to  have  been  founded  at 
Newton  Longville,  as  a  cell  of  the  Abbey  of  St. 
Foy    at    Longueville    in    Normandy,    by   Walter 


12  THE    LOLLAEDS 

Giffard,  Earl  of  Buckingham;  while  Robert 
Bossu,  Earl  of  Leicester,  founded  another  Bene- 
dictine house  at  Luffield,  in  Whittlebury  Forest, 
and  on  the  very  borders  of  Northamptonshire. 
The  Abbey  of  St.  Mary  at  Great  Missenden  is 
said  to  have  been  founded  by  William  de  Missen- 
den in  1133,  for  the  black-robed  and  bearded 
Austin  Canons,  "  half  monks,  half  secular 
clergy  ;"  but  other  authorities  date  it  from  1293. 
"  At  the  close  of  Henry's  reign,"  writes  Mr. 
J.  R.  Green  (History  of  the  English  People,  i. 
156),  "and  throughout  tht;  reign  of  Stephen, 
England  was  stirred  by  the  first  of  those  great 
movements  which  it  was  to  experience  afterwards 
in  the  preaching  of  the  Friars,  the  Lollardism  of 
Wickliffe,  the  Reformation,  the  Puritan  enthu- 
siasm, and  the  mission  work  of  the  Wesleys. 
Everywhere,  in  town  and  country,  men  banded 
themselves  together  for  prayer,  hermits  flocked 
to  the  woods,  noble  and  churl  welcomed  the  aus- 
tere Cistercians A  new  spirit  of  devotion 

woke  the  slumbers  of  the  religious  houses,  and 
penetrated  alike  to  the  home  of  the  noble  and  the 
trader."  It  was  naturally  to  be  expected  that 
many  would  seek  retirement  from  the  world 
during  the  troubled  days  of  Stephen  (1135-1154). 
And  the  Cistercians,  the  "  White  Monks  of 
Citeaux,"  whose  rule  bore  the  impress  of  the 
sturdy  English  character  of  Stephen  Harding,  and 
whose  studied  simphcity  of  life  and  worship  was  a 
practical  protest  against  the  growing  luxury  and 
worldliness  of  the   degenerate   Benedictines   and 


MONASTIC    HOUSES  13 

Ckmiacs,  were  the  very  men  to  impress  the  time. 
A  house  of  these  monks,  "  the  Quakers  of  the 
Middle  Ages,"  was  founded  at  Biddlesden  in  1117 
by  Ernald  de  Bosco,  steward  to  the  Earl  of 
Leicester,  who  dedicated  it  to  St.  Mary,  and  en- 
dowed it  with  his  lands  there  "  in  wood  and  in 
plain."  Another  of  the  115  monasteries  built  in 
England  during  Stephen's  reign  was  an  ahen 
priory  at  Wing,  a  cell  of  the  Abbey  of  St. 
Nicolas  at  Angers,  which  was  founded  in  1140, 
and  was  endowed  with  lands  by  the  Empress 
Maud. 

Under  Henry  II.  (1154-1189)  three  Benedic- 
tine nunneries  arose  at  uncertain  dates.  One,  to 
which  some  attribute  an  earlier  origin,  was  dedi- 
cated to  St.  Margaret,  the  vii'gin  martyr  of 
Antioch.  It  stood  among  the  beech-crowned 
Chilterns,  in  a  detached  portion  of  the  parish  of 
Ivinghoe,  upon  the  Herts  border.  Two  more  were 
on  the  banks  of  the  Thames — St.  Mary's  at  Little 
Marlow  (called  "  the  Priory  of  the  Springs  "), 
close  to  the  present  village  of  Well  End  ;  and  St. 
Mary  Magdalene's,  Ankerwyke,  at  the  extreme 
south  of  the  county  in  the  parish  of  Wraysbury. 
The  Premonstratensians  or  White  Canons  had  an 
abbey,  dedicated  to  St.  John  the  Baptist,  at 
Lavendon,  near  Olncy.  In  the  beautiful  vale  of 
Notley,  with  its  hazel-copses  by  the  banks  of  the 
Thames,  Walter  GifTard,  second  Earl  of  Bucking- 
ham (son  of  the  Earl  who  is  said  to  have  founded 
Newton  Priory),  and  Ermentrude  his  wife, 
founded  an  Augustinian  abbey,  dedicated  to  the 


14  THE    LOLLAEDS 

Virgin  and  St.  John  the  Baptist  (1161),  which 
became  very  rich  in  lands  and  other  possessions. 
St.  Mary's  Priory  at  Bradwell,  near  Wolverton, 
a  Benedictine  house,  dated  from  about  1155  ;  and 
a  small  hospital  at  Ludgershall,  a  "  cell  "  of  an 
abbey  in  Picardy,  also  had  its  origin  in  this  reign. 

The  number  of  dedications  to  the  Virgin  is  very 
significant.  One  third  of  the  ancient  dedications 
of  parish  churches  in  Buckinghamshire  are  also 
to  the  "Blessed  Virgin,"  or  to  her  Nativity  or 
Assumption.  This  is  said  to  have  been  largely 
due  to  the  influence  of  St.  Hugh,  Bishop  of  Lin- 
coln 1186-1200,  who  earnestly  promoted  the  cultus 
which  is  thus  indicated. 

Under  Eichard  I.  (1189-1199)  no  religious 
foundations  are  recorded  in  the  county  ;  and  under 
John  (1199-1216)  only  one.  This  was  the  small 
Abbey  of  Medmenham,  really  a  cell  of  the  Cis- 
tercian Abbey  of  Woburn,  Beds,  founded  in  1201, 
occupied  by  monks  from  Woburn  in  1204,  aban- 
doned for  a  time,  and  then  re-opened  in  1212. 

Early  in  the  long  reign  of  Henry  III.  (1216- 
1272)  we  come  to  the  foundation  of  the  Benedic- 
tine Priory  of  Snelshall,  on  the  borders  of  Whad- 
don  Chase  (1218).  In  1244  Sir  Ealph  de  Norwich 
(probably  a  veteran  who  had  fought  with  Coeur 
de  Lion  in  Palestine)  founded  an  Augustinian 
priory  at  Chetwode ;  and  another  sprang  up  at 
Eavenstone  in  1254,  nominally  originated  by  the 
King,  but  really  by  Peter  de  Chaceport,  the 
keeper  of  his  wardrobe.  In  1265,  the  king's 
brother  Eichard,  King  of  the  Eomans,  founded 


MONASTIC    HOUSES  15 

an  abbey  for  Benedictine  nuns  at  Burnham,  close 
to  his  manor-house  at  Cippenham. 

Lastly,  at  an  uncertain  date  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  I.  (1272-1307),  Edmund  Earl  of  Corn- 
wall, son  of  the  Richard  just  mentioned,  founded 
and  munificently  endowed  a  monastery  or  "  Col- 
lege "  for  "  Bonhommes  "  of  the  order  of  St. 
Augustine,  at  Ashridge,  on  the  site  now  occupied 
by  the  palatial  residence  of  Earl  Brownlow.  It 
became  the  most  renowned  place  of  pilgrimage 
in  the  county,  for  its  founder  presented  it  with  a 
portion  of  the  contents  of  a  golden  vessel,  said  to 
contain  some  of  the  blood  of  our  Saviour,  which 
he  had  obtained  in  Germany,  and  in  honour  of 
which  he  dedicated  the  College.  The  remainder 
he  bestowed  on  an  abbey  founded  by  his  father  at 
Hales,  in  Gloucestershire.  "  The  blood  of 
Hales  "  is  often  mentioned  in  writings  of  the 
Reformation  period.  One  account  makes  it  the 
blood  of  a  duck  ;  but  Henry  VIII. 's  commissioners 
declared  it  to  be  "  an  unctuous  gum  "  coloured 
red.  Mr.  Pratt,  in  his  notes  on  Foxe  (vol.  vii. ,  p. 
775),  gives  an  extract  from  the  Liher  Fcstivalis, 
stating  that  it  was  not  supposed  to  be  the  actual 
blood  of  Christ,  but  that  of  a  miraculous  crucifix, 
pierced  by  certain  Jews.  But  Latimer,  when 
living  at  West  Kington,  not  far  from  Hales,  says  : 
"  They  believe  verily  that  it  was  the  very  blood 
that  was  in  Christ's  body,  shed  upon  the  mount 
of  Calvary  for  our  salvation."  The  founder's 
heart  was  preserved  at  Ashridge  in  a  golden 
shrine,  along  with  that  of  St.  Thomas  de  Canti- 


16  THE    LOLLAEDS 

lupe,  Bishop  of  Hereford.  A  century  later, 
Edward  the  Black  Prince  richly  endowed  the 
College  of  the  Precious  Blood,  and  presented  it 
witii  a  portion  of  the  True  Cross  set  in  gold  and 
gems. 

This  list  of  monasteries  is  not  complete  (e.g., 
there  was  certainly  one  at  Aylesbury  in  early 
Norman  times)  ;  but  the  rest  were  either  very 
small,  or  soon  fell  into  decay. 

The  monastic  houses  enjoyed  curiously  varied 
privileges.  For  example,  Biddlesden,  by  a  grant 
of  Edward  II.,  to  whom  the  Abbot  had  lent 
money,  had  the  right  of  holding  a  market  every 
Monday,  and  an  annual  fair  during  six  days.  The 
nuns  of  Burnham,  in  the  second  year  of  Henry 
IV. ,  acquired  the  right  of  holding  a  market  and 
fair  at  Burnham,  and  a  fair  at  Beaconsfield,  the 
tolls  of  which  were  of  course  Abbey  property,  and 
also  the  right  of  claimiuo-  all  got)(1s  confiscated 
for  felony  both  in  Burnham  and  Beaconsfield. 
The  nuns  of  Marlow  similarly  held  a  fair  at 
Ivinghoe.  The  Prior  of  Snelshali  held  weekly 
markets  at  Snelshali  and  Mursley.  The  Abbot  of 
Notley  held  the  advowson  and  tithes  of 
several  parishes,  with  exemption  from  pay- 
ments in  the  county  and  hundred  courts,  free- 
dom from  market  tolls  throughout  the  realm,  and 
the  right  to  use  two  carts  at  certain  seasons  to 
bring  wood  from  the  royal  forest  of  Bern  wood. 
The  nuns  of  Ankerwyke  might  feed  sixty  swine  on 
the  acorns  of  Windsor  Forest.  Strangest  of  all, 
the  Prior  of  Tickford  had  the  privilege  of  setting 


MONASTIC   HOUSES  17 

up  a  "  pillory  and  tumbrill,  to  punish  and  chastise 
transgressors  ;"  while  his  near  neighbour  the  Prior 
of  Newton  might  keep  his  vassals  in  awe  by  means 
of  his  own  private  gallows, 

A  curious  picture  of  a  monastery  farm  is  given 
in  Dugdale's  Monasticon  (v.  205),  in  the  shape  of 
an  inventory  of  the  goods  of  Tickford  Priory,  early 
in  the  fourteenth  century.  There  were  11  horses, 
28  head  of  cattle,  54  sheep,  77  swine,  2  swans, 
2  peacocks,  124  acres  of  wheat,  133  of  oats,  15 
of  peas  and  vetches,  9  of  here  (coarse  barley), 
4  of  beans,  and  8  of  meadow-land,  besides 
two  acres  "mixed."  Each  man-servant  had  the 
same  allowance  as  a  monk,  but  with  an  extra 
supply  of  bread  and  ale.  Throughout  England 
the  monks  were  the  best  farmers.      The  sneer  that 

— "  these  black  crows 
Had  pitched  by  instinct  on  the  fattest  pastures," 

loses  its  point  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  sites 
they  selected  often  owed  their  beauty  and  fer- 
tility to  the  patient  toil  of  the  brethren,  having 
been  at  first  unreclaimed  wastes  and  swamps.  The 
rule  of  the  monks  as  landlords,  too,  was  probably 
milder  than  that  of  the  Norman  baron,  though 
we  shall  see  that  the  great  houses  could  be  tyran- 
nous enough  to  their  tenants  at  times. 

There  were  five  leper  houses  in  the  county — 
two  at  Aylesbury,  one  at  Wycombe,  and 
one  at  Newport  Pagnell  (which  still  exists 
as    an     almshouse),    and     also    a    "chapel     of 


18  THE    LOLLARDS 

leprous  women  "  at  Bradley,  belonging  to 
Notley  Abbey.  The  inmates  naturally  lived  a 
semi-monastic  life.  Some  have  imagined  that 
leprosy  was  imported  from  the  East  by  those 
returning  from  the  Crusades  ;  but  there  are  traces 
of  its  existence  in  England  at  a  much  earlier  date. 
It  was  probably  due  to  the  general  ignorance  of 
sanitary  laws,  and  had  greatly  abated  in  virulence 
by  the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century. 

A  more  certain  trace  of  the  influence  of  the 
Crusades  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  two 
great  military  orders  of  the  Knights  Templars 
and  Hospitallers  held  lands  in  various  parts  of 
the  county.  The  Templars  would  be  well  known 
at  Marlow,  as  they  had  a  Preceptory  at  Bisham, 
just  across  the  river  (where  the  name  "  Temple  " 
still  survives) ;  and  the  Hospitallers  had  a 
Commandery  at  High  Wycombe,  the  ruins  of 
which  may  still  be  seen  in  front  of  the  Grammar 
School,  and  another  at  Hogshaw,  near  Winslow. 
Many  a  gallant  Buckinghamshire  knight  doubtless 
found  his  way  to  Palestine  to  fight  against  the 
"  misbehevers."  Sir  Ralph  de  Norwich  has 
already  been  referred  to.  John  of  Marlow,  a 
Knight  Hospitaller,  went  with  Prince  Edward  to 
the  last  Crusade,  and  was  slain  at  the  siege  of 
Acre  on  Palm  Sunday,  1270.  Even  in  the  early 
part  of  the  fifteenth  century,  John  Cheyne,  son 
of  the  lord  of  Drayton  Beauchamp,  fought  in 
Palestine.  And  we  may  still  see  a  reminder  of 
the  Holy  Wars  in  the  "  Saracen's  Head,"  no 
uncommon  sign  of  Buckinghamshire  inns.  ' 


CHAPTER    III 

RELIGIOUS    LIFE   IN    THE   MIDDLE  AGES 

In  estimating  the  religious  condition  of  the 
country  before  Lollardy  arose,  it  is  necessary  to 
take  into  account  numerous  elements,  which 
exercised  a  more  wide-spread  influence  than  the 
monastic  houses  described  in  the  last  chapter. 
These  were  scattered  here  and  there  ;  but  in  every 
village  there  was  a  parish  priest.  There  is  reason, 
however,  to  fear  that  these  clergy  were  as  a  rule 
sadly  ignorant  and  inefficient.  They  preached 
but  little  ;  and  when  Archbishop  Peckham  tried  to 
institute  a  reform  in  the  days  of  Edward  I.,  he 
went  no  further  than  to  require  that  every  clerk 
should  deliver  four  sermons  a  year  to  his 
parishioners  ! 

The  revenues  of  the  Church  were  so  largely 
monopolised  by  the  monasteries  and  the  higher 
ecclesiastics  (many  of  the  latter  foreign  nominees 
of  the  Pope,  and  in  some  cases  never  entering 
England)  that  the  parish  priests,  like  those  of 
Ireland  at  the  present  day,  were  largely  dependent 
on  the  dues  and  offerings  of  their  people.  In  the 
Records  of  Buckingliamsliire  (i.  233)  a  curious 
document  is  cited,   by  which   Bishop  Sutton,   in 

19 


20  THE    LOLLARDS 

1394,  appoints  Eobert  of  Thame  to  "  the  newly 
ordained  vicarage  of  Bierton,"  with  the  duty  of 
holding  service  in  the  chapels  of  Bierton, 
Quarrendon,  Buckland,  and  Stoke.  The  revenues 
of  these  four  chapels  are  estimated  at  36  marks 
(£'24),  of  course  representing  a  far  larger  amount 
at  the  present  day.  This  included  "  all  manner 
of  oblations,  mortuaries,  tithe  of  wool,  lambs, 
milk,  flax,  hemp,  pigs,  geese,  eggs,  foals  of 
horses,  calves,  gardens  and  crofts  which  are  dug 
with  foot  and  spade,  and  also  all  the  tithe  of 
pigeons,"  besides  "  certain  corn,  commonly  called 
Puttecorne,  for  the  burial  of  the  parishioners  of 
Hulcote,  who  are  buried  at  Bierton."  The  parish 
priest  of  Wycombe  had  "  the  tithe  of  teasels  " 
(used  in  fulling  cloth). 

The  whole  nation  was  nominally  of  one  faith, 
save  for  a  handful  of  Jews.  These  were  so  few 
that  a  law  was  passed  under  Henry  II.,  restricting 
their  interments  to  one  burying-ground  near 
London.  In  Buckinghamshire  a  few  scattered  in- 
dividuals residing  at  Buckingham,  Wycombe,  and 
Marlow,  are  all  that  have  been  traced  by  Jewish 
antiquaries.  In  1290,  all  Jews  were  expelled, 
and  the  outward  uniformity  was  complete. 

The  old  Paganism,  however,  had  died  hard, 
and  traces  of  it  were  to  be  found  at  a  much  later 
date  than  is  commonly  supposed.  As  late  as  the 
reign  of  Henry  II.,  St.  Hugh,  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 
had  complained  that  he  found  many  relics  of 
heathenism  in  his  diocese.  (Vita  Sancti  Hugonis, 
Eolls  Series,  348).    Amongst  others,  it  is  recorded 


T>. 


LIFE    IN    MIDDLE    AGES  21 

that  he  suppressed  the  worship  of  a  certain 
"fountain"  at  Wycombe.  This,  it  seems,  was 
the  spring  at  the  east  end  of  Wycombe  Eye,  by 
the  piece  of  ground  still  known  as  Halliwell  (Holy 
Well)  Mead.  But  the  worship  of  sacred  springs 
was  carried  on,  if  in  a  modified  form,  for  at  least 
a  century  after  the  time  of  St.  Hugh.  In  1299 
Bishop  Sutton  forbade  the  resort  of  pilgrims  to 
the  "  holy  well  at  Linslade,"  alleging  that  it 
had  become  a  public  scandal,  and  that  the  vicar 
had  encouraged  it  for  his  own  emolument. 

Another  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  in  the  next  century, 
had  a  deep  and  lasting  influence  throughout  his 
vast  diocese.  Robert  Grossetete,  Bishop  from 
1235  to  1253,  was  born  of  humble  peasant  stock 
in  Suffolk,  and  his  w^hole  career  was  not  only  that 
of  a  true  Christian  pastor,  but  that  of  a  great 
English  patriot.  No  "  hireling  that  cared  not 
for  the  sheep,"  no  cold  and  uusympathising 
foreigner,  he  looked  on  each  peasant  and  serf  in 
his  unwieldy  diocese  as  a  fellow-countryman  and 
a  brother  in  Christ.  He  has  been  styled  "a 
Reformer  before  the  Reformation,"  but  his 
protests  were  against  the  corruptions  of  the 
Church  in  discipline,  and  the  encroachments  of 
the  Papal  Court,  not  against  the  received 
doctrines  of  Catholicism.  He  set  himself 
against  impropriation  of  tithes,  against  ab- 
sentee and  pluralist  clergy,  and  against  the 
holding  of  secular  office  by  bishops  and  priests. 
He  used  all  his  influence  to  supply  the  parishes 
with    suitable   pastors,    and    refused   to   institute 


i/ 


22  THE    LOLLAEDS 

incompetent  men.  In  his  EpistolcE,  published 
in  the  EoUs  Series,  we  find  some  allusions  to 
Buckinghamshire.  He  protests  against  the  ap- 
pointment of  the  Abbot  of  Eamsey  as  itinerant 
justice  for  the  counties  of  Buckingham  and 
Bedford  (p.  105).  He  writes  to  the  monks  of 
Missenden,  who  were  about  to  elect  an  abbot, 
and  points  out  to  them  the  responsible  nature  of 
their  choice,  entreating  them  not  to  exercise  less 
care  in  the  selection  of  a  guardian  of  souls  than 
they  would  in  that  of  one  of  their  swineherds 
(p.  268).  The  suffrages  of  the  monks  fell  upon 
Eoger  of  Aylesbury,  and  we  must  hope  that  he 
realised  the  Bishop's  ideal. 

Grossetete  regarded  with  favour  the  rise  of  a 
new  religious  movement  which  characterised  his 
day— the  work  of  the  Friars,  especially  of  the 
Franciscans  and  Dominicans.  Through  their 
efforts,  he  said,  "  the  people  that  sat  in  darkness 
had  seen  a  great  light."  Indeed,  the  labours  of 
these  men,  who  sought  out  the  poor  and  degraded, 
and  preached  with  homely  earnestness  in  street 
and  market-place,  amounted  to  a  religious  revo- 
lution, and  tended  to  win  back  for  the  Church 
much  of  the  popular  sympathy  which  had  been 
alienated  by  the  aloofness  of  the  monks  and  the 
inefficiency  of  the  parish  priests. 

The  Dominicans  or  Black  Friars  first  appeared 
in  England  in  1221,  the  year  of  their  founder's 
death,  when  thirteen,  landing  at  Dover,  went 
first  to  Oxford  to  convert  the  Jews,  and  then  to 
London.     Three  years  later,  nine  Franciscans  or 


LIFE    IN    MIDDLE    AGES  23 

Grey  Friars  landed  penniless  at  Dover,  and  settled 
at  Canterbury,  at  Oxford,  and  in  "  Stinking  Lane 
by  the  Shambles  at  Newgate,"  henceforth  known 
as  Greyfriars.  In  thirty  years  their  numbers  in 
England  had  increased  to  over  1200.  The 
Carmelites  (White  Friars)  and  Augustinians 
(Austin  Friars)  followed  a  few  years  later. 

However  warmly  the  Friars  were  received  by 
the  "common  people,"  they  were  scarcely 
welcomed  by  the  older  Orders,  whose  comfortable 
devotion  was  disturbed  by  the  ascetic  life  and 
noisy  teaching  of  the  new  comers.  The  two  first 
Grey  Brothers  who  journeyed  to  Oxford  lost  their 
way  in  the  woods  between  Oxford  and  Baldon 
(five  or  six  miles  from  the  Buckinghamshire 
border).  Fearful  of  the  floods,  they  sought 
shelter  at  a  grange  of  the  monks  of  Abingdon. 
"Their  ragged  clothes  and  foreign  gestures,  as 
they  prayed  for  hospitality,  led  the  porter  to  take 
them  for  jongleurs,  the  jesters  and  jugglers  of 
the  day,  and  the  news  of  this  break  in  the 
monotony  of  their  lives  brought  prior,  sacrist,  and 
cellarer,  to  the  door  to  welcome  them  and  witness 
their  tricks.  The  disappointment  was  too  much 
for  the  temper  of  the  monks,  and  the  brothers 
were  kicked  roughly  from  the  door  to  find  their 
night's  lodging  under  a  tree." 

No  doubt  the  people  of  Buckinghamshire 
became  familiar  with  the  sight  of  Grey  and  Black 
Friars  traversing  the  roads  between  Oxford  and 
London.  But  it  was  not  till  1368  that  the 
Franciscans  founded  an.  establishment  at  Ayles- 


24  THE    LOLLAEDS 

bury,  the  only  one  of  any  order  of  Friars  in  the 
county  ;  and  the  permanent  Friary  there  was  not 
built  until  some  years  later. 

Although  the  preaching  of  the  Friars  was  of 
course  thoroughly  Romanist  (Wycliffe  complains 
that  they  took  for  their  texts  the  lives  of  the 
saints,  and  even  popular  tales  and  ballads,  instead 
of  the  words  of  Scripture),  and  although  they 
afterwards  found  means  of  evading  their  vow  of 
poverty,  acquired  rich  possessions,  and  were 
accused  of  greed,  laziness,  and  licentiousness; 
still  their  work  was  of  immense  importance  in 
preparing  the  way  for  the  Lollard  Reformation. 
Especially  did  they  awaken  a  love  of  earnest, 
homely  preaching  which  has  largely  characterised 
the  English  race  ever  since. 

When  we  come  to  consider  the  traces  of  actual 
dissent  from  the  teaching  of  the  Church  before 
the  rise  of  Wycliffe,  we  find  them  singularly  few 
and  vague.  Yet  there  was  undoubtedly  a  good 
deal  of  secret  dissent  hidden  below  the  surface  ; 
and  it  is  curious  that  this  is  especially  traceable 
in  the  adjoining  county  of  Oxford.  In  1166, 
according  to  William  of  Newburgh,  a  council  was 
convened  at  Oxford  to  enquire  into  the  heresy  of  a 
company  of  about  thirty  German  weavers,  called 
"  Publicani,"  who  had  appeared  in  the  diocese  of 
Worcester.  It  is  stated  that  Gerard,  their  leader, 
was  a  man  of  education,  and  that  his  answers 
showed  him  to  be  orthodox  as  to  the  person  of 
Christ,  but  that  he  rejected  baptism,  marriage, 
the  Eucharist,  and  the  authority  of  the  Church. 


LIFE    IN    MIDDLE    AGES  25 

It  is  probably  to  be  understood  that  he  and  his 
followers  refused  to  accept  the  doctrine  of  sacra- 
mental grace,  and  held,  like  the  Quakers,  that 
marriage  might  be  celebrated  by  mutual  consent. 
Newburg  states  that  Gerard  and  his  followers,  by 
the  king's  command,  were  stripped  to  the  waist, 
scourged  through  the  city  of  Oxford,  and  branded 
on  the  face  with  a  hot  iron.  They  sang  as  they 
endured  their  punishment,  "  Blessed  shall  ye  be 
when  men  shall  hate  you."  Then  proclamation 
was  made  that  all  men  were  forbidden  to  give 
them  food  or  shelter,  and  they  were  driven  forth, 
with  loud  cracking  of  whips,  to  perish  miserably 
of  cold  and  hunger.  Such  is  Newburgh's  account ; 
and  if  it  is  to  be  accepted,  we  might  suppose  that 
some  of  these  unfortunate  foreigners  possibly  met 
their  fate  among  the  hills  and  woods  of  Bucking- 
hamshire. But  New^burgh  wrote  long  after,  and 
in  the  north  of  England  ;  and  other  chroniclei's 
(Eogerof  Wendover,  Walter  Mapes,  and  Ealph  of 
Coggeshall),  say  that  the  Publicani  w^ere  banished 
from  the  realm  after  being  scourged  and  branded. 
The  admission  that  these  Publicani  were  ortho- 
dox as  to  the  person  of  Christ  is  of  importance 
as  distinguishing  them  from  the  wilder  heretical 
sects  of  the  period.  They  probably  held  views 
similar  to  those  of  the  Albigenses  and  Waldenses  ; 
and  it  is  certain  that  Albigensian  refugees  found 
their  way  to  England  in  the  reign  of  John,  when 
one  was  burned  alive  in  London,  and  others  in 
different  parts  of  the  country  (Knyghton,  col. 
2418).     Traces  of  the  Waldenses  are  less  distinct. 


26  THE    LOLLAEDS 

There  is  a  reference  in  the  Custumale  of  the 
diocese  of  Rochester  to  certain  tenants  of  the 
manor  of  Darenth ,  settled  there  at  some  time  be- 
tween 1181  and  1197.  These  are  described  as 
"  Waldenses  ;"  but  this  may  simply  mean  men 
of  the  Walda,  or  Weald.  Still  more  interesting 
is  an  allusion  in  a  document  cited  in  Burn's  His- 
tory  of  Henley  (p.  186).  By  a  lease  dated  in  the 
6th  of  Henry  IV.,  the  Warden  and  Bridgemen  of 
Henley,  demised  to  Master  Edward  Bekyn- 
ham,  rector  of  the  Church  of  Henley, 
a  granary  situate  near  the  bridge,  with  a 
chapel  adjoining,  "  quondam  Waldeschenes." 
Mr.  Burn  renders  these  last  words,  "  formerly  that 
of  the  Waldenses,"  and  goes  so  far  as  to  suggest 
that  there  may  have  been  some  connexion  between 
them  and  the  followers  of  Gerard  !  This  cer- 
tainly seems  in  the  last  degree  unlikely ;  and 
indeed  Mr.  Burn  seems  to  abandon  the  idea  in  a 
later  portion  of  his  work  (p.  237),  on  the  ground 
that  the  name  of  Waldense  appears  as  a  surname 
in  the  Henley  Court  Eolls.  Even  this  can  hardly 
be  regarded,  however,  as  decisive,  when  we  re- 
member the  frequent  significance  of  surnames  in 
the  Middle  Ages ;  and  it  is  at  least  curious  that 
Henley  became  a  stronghold  of  Lollardy.  Of 
course  if  there  were  actually  Waldenses,  either  at 
Darenth  or  at  Henley,  they  must  have  outwardly 
conformed  to  the  dominant  Church  ;  but  this  was 
the  case  with  many  of  the  Waldenses  on  the 
Continent. 

Under    date    of   November  23rd,    1263,    Foxe 


LIFE    IN    MIDDLE    AGES  27 

(Acts  and  Monuments,  ii.  559)  gives  a  curious 
letter  addressed  by  Henry  III.  to  the  Sheriff  of 
Oxfordshire,  requiring  him  to  suppress  "  certain 
vagabond  persons  calhng  themselves  Harloti," 
who  were  carrjnng  on  "  meetings,  conventicles, 
and  unlawful  contracts,  against  the  honesty  of  the 
Church  and  of  good  manners."  Foxe  seems  to 
think  that  this  was  a  fanatical  religious  sect ;  and 
the  letter  certainly  seems  to  indicate  some  move- 
ment which  had  given  alarm  to  the  authorities  of 
the  Church. 

So  far  we  have  found  no  trace  of  heresy  in 
Buckinghamshire  itself;  but  the  county,  lying  as 
it  did  between  London  with  its  love  of  freedom, 
and  Oxford  with  its  intellectual  ferment  and  its 
multitudes  of  foreign  students,  was  a  district 
where  "obstinate  questionings"  were  likely  to 
find  an  echo,  as  we  shall  see  was  actually  the 
case. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   RECTOR   OF  LUDGERSHALL 

The  reign  of  Edward  III.  is  one  of  the  most 
significant  epochs  in  our  EngHsh  history.  It  was 
characterised  by  the  final  blending  into  one 
national  life  of  the  Saxon  and  Norman  elements, 
and  by  the  recognition  of  English  as  the  national 
language;  by  the  birth  of  Enghsh  literature  in 
Chaucer  and  Langland  ;  and  by  the  first  stirring 
of  agrarian  and  democratic  movements,  which 
have  told  on  the  whole  of  our  subsequent  history. 

This  great  formative  period  was  the  real  birth- 
time  of  the  English  Reformation.  Protestantism 
in  England  was  not  the  offspring  of  the  caprice 
of  Henry  VIII.  Kings  can  do  but  little  towards 
changing  the  faith  of  the  classes  in  which  the  real 
strength  of  a  country's  religion  lies.  The  Refor- 
mation of  the  sixteenth  century  was  the  inevitable 
resultant  of  a  series  of  forces  which  had  been 
at  work  for  ages,  and  which  had  found  an 
embodiment  a  century  and  a  half  before  in  the 
life  and  teachings  of  John  Wycliffe,  for  six  years 
the  rector  of  a  Buckinghamshire  parish. 

The  estimate  of  John  Wycliffe's  greatness  has 
steadily  increased  with  the  lapse  of  time.  Here 
28 


RECTOR    OF    LUDGERSHALL        29 

and  there  some  obscure  writer  may  affect  to 
believe  that  his  splendid  career  of  opposition  to 
the  Papacy  finds  its  explanation  in  spite,  at  being 
deprived  of  a  wardenship  at  Oxford  ;  though  it 
is  very  doubtful  whether  the  John  Wycliffe  or 
Wyclyve  who  was  Warden  of  Canterbury  Hall, 
by  the  appointment  of  Archbishop  Islip,  and  who 
was  dispossessed  in  1367  by  Archbishop  Langham, 
was  not  quite  another  person,  the  parish  priest 
of  May  field  in  Sussex.  Anyhow,  it  is  certain  that 
Islip  was  at  Mayfield  at  the  time  of  the  appoint- 
ment, having  been  seized  with  an  attack  of 
paralysis  while  on  a  journey. 

Continental  scholars,  like  Lechler  and  Loserth, 
with  a  truer  appreciation  of  Wycliife's  greatness 
than  that  shown  by  some  of  his  countrymen,  have 
seen  in  him  the  master-mind,  not  only  of  the 
English,  but  of  the  European  Reformation. 
Milton  was  not  so  far  wrong  when  he  wrote  in 
his  Areopagitica,  "  Had  it  not  been  for  the 
perverseness  of  our  prelates,  against  the  divine 
and  admirable  Wicklef,  to  suppress  him  as  a 
schismatic  and  innovator,  perhaps  neither  the 
Bohemian  Huss  and  Jerome,  no,  nor  the  name 
of  Luther  or  of  Calvin ,  had  ever  been  known.  The 
glory  of  reforming  all  our  neighbours  had  been 
completely  ours." 

Born  near  Wycliffe-on-Tees,  in  the  extreme 
north  of  Yorkshire,  about  1320,  Wycliffe  pursued 
his  studies  at  Oxford  with  such  success  that  in 
or  about  1360  he  became  Master  of  Balliol.  In 
1361  he  was  presented  by  that  College  to  the  living 


30  THE    LOLLARDS 

of  Fillingham  in  Lincolnshire.  He  still  continued, 
however,  to  reside  mainly  at  Oxford,  probably 
providing  a  curate  to  supply  his  place  at  Filling- 
ham. 

In  1368,  Wycliffe  obtained  two  years'  leave  of 
absence  from  Fillingham,  and  the  same  year  he 
exchanged  the  living  for  the  less  valuable  rectory 
of  Ludgershall,  in  Buckinghamshire,  so  as  to  be 
nearer  Oxford. 

Ludgershall  is  a  tiny  village,  about  12  miles 
N.E.  of  Oxford,  and  nearly  the  same  distance 
W.N.W.  of  Aylesbury.  The  old  church,  with  an 
embattled  tower,  stands  at  the  top  of  a  sloping 
village  green.  The  scenery  around  is  somewhat 
tlat,  except  to  the  south,  where  the  picturesque 
heights  of  Brill  and  Ashendon  divide  the  plain 
of  North  Bucks  from  the  Vale  of  Aylesbury.  Over 
the  south  porch  of  the  church  was  formerly  a 
parvise,  or  priest's  chamber,  the  spiral  stair 
leading  to  which  from  the  aisle  may  still  be  traced. 
This  chamber  seems  to  have  been  destroyed  in  a 
restoration  a  few  years  ago,  a  loss  which  is  to 
be  regretted,  because  the  parvise  was  often  used 
as  a  study,  and  a  doubtful  tradition  has  it  that 
here  Wycliffe  wrote  his  great  work,  De  Civili 
Dominio. 

The  village  was  probably  a  place  of  greater 
relative  importance  then  than  now.  The  Roman 
Akeman  Street,  and  the  broad  trackway  from 
Oxford  to  Cambridge,  passed  through  the  parish. 
The  Knights  of  St.  John  had  presented  Wycliffe 
to  the  living.  Their  office  was  to  protect  travellers, 


RECTOR    OF    LUDGERSHALL        31 

and  they  had  a  hospice  at  Ludgershall,  just  on 
the  borders  of  Bern  wood  Forest.  There  was  also, 
as  we  have  seen,  a  small  "'  alien  priory." 

It  is  not  easy  for  us  to  picture  the  conditions 
of  life  in  a  village  like  Ludgershall  in  the  four- 
teenth century.  Many  of  Wycliffe's  parishioners 
would  be  serfs  and  villeins,  almost  as  much  a 
part  of  the  estate  they  tilled  as  the  cattle  or  the 
trees ;  clad  in  the  coarsest  garments,  living  on  the 
poorest  food,  and  inhabiting  wattled  hovels,  with 
smoke-holes  instead  of  chimneys.  The  winter 
floods  are  troublesome  at  Ludgershall  even  now, 
but  would  be  far  worse  then.  The  old  people 
would  remember  the  Seven  Years'  Famine 
(1315 — 1321),  the  most  terrible  in  English  history. 
And  worst  of  all,  twenty  years  before  Wycliffe 
came  to  the  village  (1348),  the  Black  Death,  after 
slaying  its  tens  of  millions  both  in  Asia  and 
Europe,  had  made  its  appearance  in  Dorsetshire, 
and  crept  slowly  northward  and  eastward.  The 
grass  grew  in  the  streets  of  Bristol.  The  lads 
who  were  crowded  together,  living  on  the  barest 
fare,  in  the  hostels  of  Oxford,  died  by  hundreds 
after  a  few  hours'  sickness.  Fifty  thousand 
corpses  were  inten-ed  in  one  great  burying-ground 
outside  the  gates  of  London.  In  the  country, 
cattle  roamed  about  ownerless,  and  the  harvests 
rotted  in  the  fields.  At  Winslow,  ten  miles  from 
Ludgershall,  153  holdings  changed  hands  in  a  few 
months,  and  37  out  of  43  jurymen  of  the  manor 
court  died.  A  milder  outbreak  marked  the  year 
1361,  while  Wycliffe  was  Master  of  Balliol.     A 


32  THE    LOLLAKDS 

third  came  in  1368,  just  after  his  settlement  at 
Ludgershall,  and  the  fourth  and  last  in  1375. 

Some  writers  have  maintained  that  Wycliffe 
held  the  living  of  Leckhamstead,  near  Bucking- 
ham, at  the  same  time  as  that  of  Ludgershall. 
In  the  will  of  William  de  Askeby,  Archdeacon 
of  Northampton,  made  just  before  his  death  in 
1371,  and  preserved  in  the  Lambeth  Register,  is 
a  legacy  of  "  100s.  or  one  best  robe  "  to  "  John 
de  Wyclif,  rector  of  Lekehamstede."  The 
principal  executor  of  this  will  is  "  John  de  Wyclif, 
rector  of  Ludgershale."  Hence  some  have 
thought  that  the  rector  of  Leckhamstead  was  a 
kinsman  of  the  Heformer.  But  John  de  Barton 
was  rector  there  from  1361  to  1365,  when  he  re- 
signed, and  was  followed  by  John  D' Autre. 
Moreover,  there  is  a  tick  in  the  margin  of  the 
Eegister  against  "Lekehamstede,"  as  if  to  hint 
at  some  error.  Possibly  the  dying  Archdeacon 
dictated  the  word  by  a  momentary  inadvertence 
or  failure  of  memory.  Wycliffe  could  hardly 
have  protested  as  strongly  as  he  did  against 
pluralists,  if  it  had  been  known  that  he  was  a 
pluralist  himself. 

Some  very  vague  traditions  are  preserved  in  a 
part  of  the  county  rather  remote  from  Ludger- 
shall, w^hich  have  to  do  with  Wycliffe.  In  the 
little  town  of  Colnbrook,  through  which  he  would 
probably  pass  on  his  journeys  between  Oxford  and 
London,  a  family  named  Weekly  used  to  claim 
a  descent  from  him,  which  if  true,  must  have 
been  of  course  a  collateral  one.      Close  by,  at 


KECTOK    OF    LUDGERSHALL        33 

Longford,  in  Middlesex,  an  old  house  was  long 
pointed  out  as  having  given  him  shelter  in  some 
time  of  danger  ;  and  not  very  far  off  is  the  Crouch 
Oak  at  Addlestone,  in  Surrey,  under  which  a 
very  doubtful  tradition  states  that  he  preached. 

Roughly  spetikiiig,  Wyclifl'e's  life-w^ork  may  be 
divided  into  three  periods — academic,  political, 
and  spiritual.  It  was  during  the  second  that  he 
was  rector  of  Ludgershall.  England  was  asser- 
ting its  independence  of  the  Papal  Court  at 
Avignon,  the  influence  of  which  had  been  lessened 
by  Edward  III.'s  French  victories.  The 
Statutes  of  Pro  visors  and  Praemunire  (1350, 1353) 
had  challenged  the  Pope's  right  to  interfere  in 
English  affairs.  In  1366,  however,  Urban  V. 
unwisely  required  the  King  to  pay  the  tribute 
promised  by  John,  with  thirty  years'  arrears,  or 
else  to  appear  before  him  as  his  feudal  superior, 
and  answer  for  his  neglect.  The  spirit  of  the 
nation  was  thoroughly  roused.  There  was  a 
growing  intolerance  of  priestly  pretensions,  a 
significant  instance  occurring  in  Buckingham- 
shire two  or  three  years  before  this,  when  the 
Abbot  of  Missenden,  who  had  been  convicted 
of  illegal  coining,  was  sentenced  to  be  hanged, 
drawn,  and  quartered,  a  doom  he  escaped  by 
means  of  the  Royal  pardon.  Parliament  repu- 
diated the  Papal  claim,  and  declared  John's  sur- 
render of  the  Crown  null  and  void.  Further 
anti-Papal  legislation  followed  (1371  to  1374); 
and  in  the  latter  year  the  now  aged  King 
appointed    a    Commission   to    treat    with    Papal 


34  THE    LOLLAEDS 

delegates  at  Bruges  on  the  points  at  issue  between 
England  and  the  Pope.  There  were  seven  com- 
missioners, and  Wycliffe's  name  stands  second 
on  the  list.  The  negotiations  proved  to  a  large 
extent  fruitless,  but  Edward  showed  his  appre- 
ciation of  Wycliffe's  services  by  offering  him  on 
his  return  a  prebendal  stall  in  Worcester  Cathe- 
dral, which  he  declined.  Earlier  in  the  year, 
however,  he  had  accepted  the  living  of  Lutter- 
worth in  Leicestershire,  on  which  appointment  he 
seems  to  have  immediately  resigned  the  living 
of  Ludgershall.  The  ties  which  bound  him  to 
Oxford  had  been  weakened  (if  he  was  indeed  the 
dispossessed  Warden  of  Canterbury  Hall)  by  the 
action  of  Archbishop  Langham  ;  and  he  no  longer 
felt  the  need  of  a  residence  near  the  University. 
Henceforth  he  was  to  speak  not  so  much  to 
scholars  as  to  the  English  nation  at  large. 

Lechler  (page  367)  thinks  that  it  was  not  until 
after  the  Papal  Schism  (1378)  that  Wycliffe 
began  to  send  out  his  famous  itinerant  preachers, 
the  "  Poor  Priests,"  and  that  Lutterworth  was 
the  headquarters  of  the  mission.  His  translator, 
Dr.  Lorimer,  however  (page  201,  note)  says  : — 
"  The  prevalence  of  Lollard  doctrines  in  after 
years  throughout  the  districts  lying  immediately 
to  the  east  of  Oxfordshire  seems  to  point  to  some 
original  centre  of  activity  in  that  neighbourhood  ; 
and  as  Wychffe  held  the  living  of  Ludgershall 
from  1368  till  1374,  the  probability  seems  to  be 
that  the  plan  was  originated  there."  Lechler's 
suggested  date  certainly  seems  too  late,  in  view 


KECTOR    OF    LUDGEESHALL        35 

of  the  proportions  which  the  movement  had 
reached  at  the  date  of  the  "  Earthquake  Council  " 
in  1382.  But  the  Lollard  districts  in  this  part 
of  the  country  group  themselves  far  more  naturally 
round  Oxford  itself  than  round  Ludgershall ;  for 
as  we  shall  see,  while  we  meet  with  hundreds  of 
instances  in  South  Bucks,  which  lies  between 
Oxford  and  London,  but  is  cut  off  from  Ludgers- 
hall by  the  Chiltern  Hills,  there  is  scarcely  one 
recorded  for  the  north  of  the  county.  There  are, 
on  the  other  hand,  numerous  cases  in  the  parts 
of  Oxfordshire  and  Berkshire  which  lie  to  the 
west  and  south  of  the  I'niversity  City. 

Wycliffe's  preachers  do  not  all  seem  to  have 
been  in  orders  ;  and  towards  the  end  of  his  life 
he  speaks  of  them  as  "  evangelical  men,"  rather 
than  as  "  priests."  Clad  in  russet  gowns,  with 
bare  feet,  they  travelled  with  staff  is  hand  from 
town  to  town,  preaching  in  the  churches  when 
allowed,  or  otherwise  in  the  churchyard,  street, 
or  market-place,  like  Wesley's  itinerants  four 
centuries  later. 

Though  Wycliffe  had  in  him  something  of  the 
typical  Conservatism  of  the  college  don,  it  was 
curiously  mingled  with  broad  popular  sympathies, 
and  he  was  perhaps  the  first  to  see  the  importance 
of  influencing  the  common  people,  and  especially 
those  of  the  country  districts,  in  the  direction  of 
religious  reform.  Speaking  of  Christ,  he  says  : — 
"  The  Gospel  relates  how  He  went  about  in  the 
places  of  the  country,  both  great  and  small,  in 
cities   and   castles,  or  in  the  small   towns;   and 


36  THE    LOLLAKDS 

this  He  did  that  He  might  teach  us  how  to  be 
profitable  to  men  generally,  and  not  to  forbear  to 
preach  to  the  people  because  they  are  few,  and 
our  name  may  not  in  consequence  be  great. 
For  we  should  labour  for  God,  and  from  Him 
hope  for  our  reward.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
Christ  went  into  such  small  uplandish  towns  as 
Bethphage  and  Cana  of  Galilee  ;  for  Christ  went 
to  all  those  places  where  He  wished  to  do  good. 
He  was  not  smitten  either  with  pride  or  covetous- 
ness  "  (Tracts  and  Treatises,  85). 

It  was  by  men  imbued  with  this  spirit  that  the 
doctrines  of  Wycliffe  were  spread  in  the  "  up- 
landish towns  "  and  villages  of  the  south  of 
Buckinghamshire.  These  doctrines  shaped  them- 
selves more  clearly  towards  the  close  of  his  life ; 
and  although  they  were  not  such  as  to  prevent  his 
remaining  a  priest  of  the  Catholic  Church,  they 
held  within  them  the  germs  of  far-reaching 
change.  He  taught  the  right  of  private  judgment, 
the  sole  and  sufficient  authority  of  Scripture  as  a 
rule  of  faith,  and  the  direct  responsibility  of  each 
soul  to  God.  The  ministry  was  necessary  to  the 
well-being  of  the  Church,  but  not  to  its  existence, 
and  the  logical  outcome  of  his  teaching  pointed 
both  to  Voluntaryism  and  to  Presbyterian  govern- 
ment. The  Pope  was  Antichrist,  and  his  cen- 
sures were  not  to  be  feared.  Wycliffe  repudiated 
baptismal  regeneration  and  transubstantiation, 
but  taught  a  doctrine  of  the  presence  of  Christ 
in  the  Eucharist  somewhat  resembling  the  later 
consubstantiation  of  Luther.     But  the  view  which 


RECTOR    OF    LUDGERSHALL        37 

perhaps  attracted  most  attention  in  his  own  time, 
and  was  most  keenly  controverted,  was  his  doc- 
trine of  "  dominion  founded  in  grace."  God,  as 
the  great  feudal  Superior  of  the  Universe,  had  not, 
he  said,  granted  dominion  to  one  man  as  His  Vicar 
on  earth.  The  King  was  as  much  God's  Vicar 
as  the  Pope,  and  indeed  every  Christian  held  his 
rights  immediately  of  God. 

We  can  only  briefly  refer  to  the  subsequent 
portion  of  Wycliffe's  life.  Summoned  before  the 
Convocation  of  Canterbury  at  St.  Paul's  Cathe- 
dral, he  was  protected  by  the  intervention  of  John 
of  Gaunt ;  and  when  in  the  following  year  he  had 
to  appear  before  the  Archbishop  at  Lambeth,  Sir 
Lewis  Clifford,  a  gentleman  of  the  household  of 
the  Princess  Joan,  mother  of  the  young  King 
Richard  II.,  appeared  to  stay  further  proceedings 
in  her  name. 

Wycliffe  continued  at  times  to  give  divinity 
lectures  at  Oxford  after  settling  at  Lutterworth. 
Perhaps  he  may  now  and  again  have  visited  his 
old  flock  at  Ludgershall,  and  no  doubt  would  take 
care  that  his  preachers  visited  the  district.  But 
now  (1381)  the  University  condemned  his  views 
on  the  Eucharist ;  John  of  Gaunt  withdrew  his 
patronage  ;  and  in  the  same  year  an  event  took 
place  which  proved  a  great  injury  to  his  cause, 
though  it  would  be  an  exaggeration  to  say  with 
Green  that  "  in  a  few  months  the  whole  of  his 
work  was  undone." 

The  depopulation  of  the  country  by  the  Black 
Death  had  deranged  the  whole  relations  between 


38  THE    LOLLAKDS 

capital  and  labour.  The  authorities  had  blindly 
sought  to  stay  the  social  changes  which  were 
taking  place  by  harsh  and  oppressive  statutes 
regulating  the  rate  of  wages  and  the  price  of  food. 
At  last,  maddened  by  the  imposition  of  a  poll-tax, 
the  peasantry  rose  over  half  the  country.  Wat 
Tyler  marched  on  London  with  the  men  of  Kent 
and  Essex.  The  tenants  of  the  great  abbeys — 
Glastonbury,  St.  Albans,  Beverley,  Bury  St. 
Edmunds — were  especially  embittered  against 
their  mitred  lords,  and  not  without  cause,  if  we 
may  judge  by  the  conduct  of  the  St.  Albans 
authorities  towards  their  tenants  in  the  Bucking- 
hamshire parishes  of  Winslow,  Grandborough, 
Aston  Abbots,  and  Little  Horwood.  "  Instances 
are  not  wanting,"  says  Mr.  A.  Clear  in  his 
History  of  the  Town  and  Manor  of  Wijislow,  "  in 
which  the  lord  "  (i.e.,  the  Abbot)  "  to  show  his 
authority,  issued  the  most  trivial  orders,  such  as 
directing  that  the  tenants  should  go  off  to  the 
woods  and  pick  nuts  for  his  use.  If  the  '  Nativi ' 
married  without  the  lord's  consent,  they  were 
fined  ;  if  they  allowed  their  houses  to  get  out  of 
repair,  they  were  fined  for  being  guilty  of  waste  ; 
if  they  'Sold  an  ox  without  the  license  of  the  lord , 
again  they  were  fined  ;  if  they  left  the  manor 
without  permission,  they  were  searched  for,  and 
if  found,  arrested  and  brought  back  into  servitude. 
....  In  all  these  offences,  the  whole  of  the  jury 
were  also  fined  if  they  neglected  to  report  the 
delinquent."  The  tenants  were  obliged  to  plough 
the  Abbot's  laud  for  so  many  days  in  the  year, 


EECTOR    OF    LUDGERSHALL        39 

to  cut  his  hay  and  corn,  and  perform  various 
kinds  of  servile  v.ork.  If  they  showed  any 
tendency  to  insubordination,  their  horses  and 
cattle  were  confiscated,  and  they  w^ere  cast  into 
prison.  But  the  grievance  which  seems  to  have 
been  most  bitterly  resented  was  the  obligation  to 
grind  their  corn  at  the  Abbot's  mill,  and  to  pay 
for  its  Uise.  The  handmills  in  their  houses  w'ere 
confiscated  and  turned  into  paving-stones  for  the 
abbey  cloisters.  When  the  news  reached  the 
Buckinghamshire  manors  of  the  rising  of  the 
citizens  of  St.  Albans,  under  the  spirited  leader- 
ship of  William  Grindecobbe,  the  peasants 
hastened  to  the  help  of  their  Hertfordshire 
brethren.  They  tore  up  the  millstones,  carried 
them  home  in  triumph,  and  extorted  from  the 
terrified  monks  ("  by  force  and  sheer  roguery," 
as  the  latter  declared)  "charters  such  as  were 
never  before  held  by  bondmen."  But  the  insur- 
rection W'as  soon  quelled  ;  Grindecobbe  paid  the 
penalty  of  his  boldness  with  his  life,  and  the 
charters  were  declared  null  and  void. 

Wycliffe's  opponents  declared,  and  the  alle- 
gation has  been  repeated  ever  since,  that  the 
commons  had  been  incited  to  rebellion  by  his 
poor  priests.  If  they  sympathised  with  the 
snflerings  of  the  peasantry,  it  was  very  much  to 
their  credit.  But  certainly  if  they  shared  the 
views  of  their  great  leader,  these  were  very  far 
from  giving  sanction  to  any  such  violent  pro- 
ceedings as  those  which  characterised  the  revolt. 
It  is  true  that  John  Ball,   "  the  mad  priest  of 


40  THE    LOLLAEDS 

Kent,"  was  said  to  have  confessed  himself  a 
follower  of  Wycliffe.  But  such  confessions,  in 
those  days  of  torture,  signify  very  little  ;  and  Ball 
had  been  accused  of  "  many  errors  and  scandals  " 
fifteen  years  before.  He  was  probably  older  than 
Wycliffe,  and  Knyghton  calls  him  the  latter's 
"  precursor,"  not  his  follower. 

The  insurgents  did  Wycliffe  great  disservice, 
not  only  by  bringing  discredit  on  the  movement 
he  had  originated,  but  by  murdering  the  gentle 
and  lenient  Archbishop  Sudbury,  whom  by  the 
way,  they  accused  of  discouraging  pilgrimages  to 
Canterbury,  which  does  not  look  much  as  if  they 
were  Wycliffites.  His  death  made  way  for  the 
promotion  to  the  Primacy  of  Wycliffe's  bitterest 
antagonist,  William  Courtenay,  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don. Courtenay  assembled  a  synod  to  condemn 
the  doctrines  of  Wycliffe.  It  met  at  the  Black- 
friars  Monastery  in  London  on  May  21st,  1382, 
and  was  known  as  the  "  Earthquake  Council,", 
from  the  fact  that  the  City  was  shaken  by  an 
earthquake  during  the  proceedings.  But  neither 
Courtenay  nor  any  other  of  his  foes  ventured  to 
lay  hands  on  Wycliffe,  and  he  remained  in 
peaceable  possession  of  his  living  at  Lutterworth 
till  his  death  on  the  last  day  of  the  year  1384. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  EARLY  DAYS  OF  LOLLARD Y 

The  name  "  Lollard,"  as  applied  to  the 
followers  of  Wycliffe,  is  first  met  with  in  the 
latter  years  of  the  Eeformer's  life  (about  1382). 
It  had  previously  been  applied  to  "  heretics  "  who 
had  arisen  in  Germany  and  other  parts  of  the 
Continent,  even  as  far  east  as  Livonia.  The 
origin  of  the  word  is  much  disputed.  It  seems 
at  the  time  to  have  been  connected  with  the  word 
lolium,  "tares;"  and  Walden  calls  Wycliffe's 
doctrines  "  bundles  of  tares."  But  the  etymolo- 
gies of  that  time  are  notoriously  fanciful.  Nor 
is  there  any  ground  for  the  idea  that  the  name 
was  derived  from  that  of  a  German  heretic  called 
Lolhard.  The  woixl  "  loll,"  to  lounge,  has  been 
suggested  ;  but  a  more  likely  derivation  is  from 
the  German  word  lollen,  to  sing  softly  (with  which 
our  words  "  lull  "  and  "  lullaby  "  are  connected). 
The  fact  that  the  Lollards  never  seem  to  have 
been  addicted  to  psalm-singing  has  been  cited 
as  an  argument  against  this  derivation  ;  but  the 
word  may  have  been  intended  to  satirise  some 
alleged  peculiarity  of  tone,  and  used  with  some 
of   the   vague   significance   of   the  modern   word 

41 


42  THE    LOLLARDS 

"  ranter."       In   the  Political  Songs  Poems  and 
Songs  (EoUs  Series,  ii.  244),  occur  the  hnes  : — 

And  parde,  lolle  thei  never  so  longe, 
Yiit   Willi  lawe   make  hem  lowte  (i.e.,  Yet 
will  law  make  them  submit). 

The  Archbishop  obtained  from  the  young  king 
after  the  Earthquake  Council  a  royal  ordinance 
for  the  arrest  and  imprisonment  of  the  itinerant 
preachers.  Strangely  enough,  this  was  entered 
as  an  Act  of  Parliament,  though  the  Commons 
had  never  consented  to  its  passing,  and  afterwards 
vainly  demanded  its  repeal.  It  was,  however, 
by  no  means  easy  to  put  the  so-called  Statute  in 
force.  The  Lollards  had  many  powerful  suppor- 
ters among  knights  and  noblemen  ;  and  Henry 
of  Knyghton  asserts  that  some  of  these  w^ere 
accustomed  to  summon  their  tenants  to  listen 
to  the  preaching  of  the  "  poor  priests,"  and  to 
stand  beside  the  preacher  armed  with  sword  and 
shield  for  his  defence. 

Were  any  of  these  militant  supporters  of 
liollardy  to  be  found  in  Buckinghamshire?  A 
paper  in  the  ArchcEologia  (ix.  375)  says  of  John 
de  Montacute,  nephew  of  the  Earl  of  Salisbury, 
"  He  was  one  of  the  chief  of  the  sect  called  Lol- 
lards, and  the  greatest  fanatic  of  them  all,  being 
so  transported  with  zeal,  that  he  caused  all  the 
images  that  were  in  the  chapel  at  Schenele 
(Shenley  in  Buckinghamshire),  that  had  been  set 
up  there  by  the  ancestors  of  his  wife,  to  be  taken 


EARLY    DAYS    OF    LOLLAEDY       43 

clown  and  thrown  into  obscure  places ;  only  the 
image  of  St.  Catherine,  in  regard  that  many  did 
affect  it,  he  gave  leave  that  it  should  stand  in  his 
bakehouse."  The  writer  is  in  error  as  to  the 
locality.  The  Shenley  referred  to  was  not  that  in 
Buckinghamshire,  but  Shenley  in  Hertfordshire, 
between  Barnet  and  St.  Alban's,  where  Monta- 
cute  had  lands  in  right  of  his  wife.  As  to  this 
"  fanatic,"  he  was  in  reality  one  of  the  most 
scholarly  and  accomplished  men  of  his  time.  A 
French  chronicler,  the  Monk  of  St.  Denys, 
instead  of  heaping  on  him  opprobrious  epithets 
such  as  are  bestowed  upon  him  by  Lancastrian 
scribes  like  Walsingham  and  Knyghton,  calls 
him  "  humble,  gentle,  and  courteous  in  all  his 
doings,"  "  loyal  and  chivalrous  in  all  places," 
"  bold  and  courageous  as  a  lion  ;"  and  adds,  "  so 
gracious  were  all  his  deeds,  that  never,  I  think, 
shall  that  man  issue  from  his  country,  in  whom 
God  has  implanted  so  much  goodness  as  was  in 
him."  At  a  later  period,  by  his  uncle's  death, 
Montacute  became  possessed  of  Bucks  manors  at 
Datchet  and  Aston  Clinton.  Another  manor  in 
the  latter  parish  belonged  to  Sir  Philip  de  la 
Vache,  K.G.,  who  sat  for  Bucks  as  knight  of 
the  shire  in  1386,  and  who  also  held  the  estate 
of  the  Vache  at  Chalfont  St.  Giles.  Sir  Philip 
married  a  daughter  of  the  Lollard  leader.  Sir 
Lewis  Clifford,  already  referred  to;  and  it  has 
been  suggested  that  he  was  probably  inclined  to 
T/ollardy  himself.  At  Aston  Clinton  he  would  be 
a    near    neighbour    of   the    well-known    Cheyne 


44  THE    LOLLARDS 

family  of  Drayton  Beauchamp,  as  well  as  of  Ches- 
ham  Bois  and  Chenies,  which  were  near  his  other 
estate  of  Chalfont.  Thomas  Cheyne,  a  member 
of  this  family,  and  a  personal  attendant  of  Richard 
]I.,  was  imprisoned  in  the  Tower  for  rebellion 
and  heresy  a  few  years  later.  We  thus  see  that 
there  existed  in  South  Bucks  a  little  circle  of 
landed  proprietors,  who  would  be  more  or  less 
certainly  in  favour  of  the  movement ;  and  as  a 
matter  of  fact  we  shall  find  that  the  district  lying 
round  Chalfont  and  Chesham  was  the  very  part 
where  the  principles  of  Lollardy  took  their  deepest 
root. 

In  or  about  1388  there  appeared  a  revision  of 
Wycliffe's  translation  of  the  Scriptures,  supposed 
to  have  been  from  the  hands  of  his  friend  John 
Purvey.  Of  this,  150  copies  of  the  whole  or  part 
are  still  extant,  a  truly  remarkable  number  con- 
sidering the  attempts  made  to  suppress  it,  over 
and  above  the  ordinary  ravages  of  time.  It 
evidently  had  a  wide  circulation,  of  course  in  MS. 

In  1395,  a  memorial  was  presented  to  Parlia- 
ment by  Sir  Thomas  Latimer  and  Sir  Richard 
Story,  which  set  forth  in  "  Twelve  Conclusions  " 
the  reforms  demanded  by  the  Lollards.  Their 
sweeping  character  marked  an  advance  on  the 
views  of  Wy cliff e.  Church  endowments,  vows 
of  celibacy,  transubstantiation,  the  exorcism  and 
benediction  of  inanimate  objects,  the  holding  of 
secular  office  by  the  clergy,  prayers  for  the  dead, 
pilgrimages,  image-worship,  and  auricular  con- 
fession, were   alike  denounced,   as   well  as  war, 


EARLY    DAYS    OF    LOLLAEDY       45 

capital  punishment,  and  the  practice  of  unneces- 
sary arts.  Great  excitement  followed,  and  King 
Eichard,  who  was  in  Ireland,  returned  to  England 
and  summoned  before  him  Montacute,  Clifford, 
Latimer,  Story,  and  others.  His  attitude  towards 
the  movement  had  previously  been  somewhat 
favourable,  but  he  now  gave  the  Lollards  clearly 
to  understand  that  they  must  look  for  no  support 
from  him.  Still,  persecution  did  not  become  very 
acute  during  his  reign.  In  1399,  however,  he  was 
dethroned,  and  the  crown  was  seized  by  his  cousin 
Henry  of  Lancaster.  The  new  King  at  once 
ordered  the  prelates  to  take  measures  for  the 
suppression  of  heresy,  and  the  arrest  of  the  wan- 
dering preachers.  At  the  Christmas  of  1399,  John 
de  Montacute,  now  Earl  of  Salisbury,  wuth  some 
other  nobles,  attempted  to  seize  Henry  at  Wind- 
sor Castle,  and  restore  Eichard.  The  plot  failed, 
and  after  a  skirmish  at  Maidenhead  Bridge,  the 
conspirators  fled  to  the  west,  and  were  seized  and 
beheaded  at  Cirencester.  The  Monk  of  St. 
Denys,  who  was  in  England  at  the  time,  says 
that  the  heads  of  the  Lollard  Earl  and  seven  of 
his  companions,  borne  aloft  on  spear-points,  were 
brought  into  London  to  the  sound  of  trumpets, 
and  were  met  by  the  Bishop  and  clergy  in  their 
robes,  chanting  the  Te  Dcum. 

The  murder  of  the  fallen  king  probably  took 
place  in  1400 ;  but  for  years  many  refused  to 
believe  in  his  death.  In  1101,  as  recorded  in  the 
Archceologia  (xxiii.  135),  Henry  was  informed 
by  one  of  the  Grey  Friars  of  Aylesbury  that  a 


46  THE    LOLLARDS 

priest  attached  to  the  Friary  had  expressed  his 
pleasure  at  hearing  a  report  that  Richard  was  still 
alive.  Henry  sent  for  him,  and  asked  if  this 
were  true. 

"  I  am  glad,"  answered  the  priest,  "  as  a  man 
is  glad  of  the  life  of  his  friend  ;  for  I  am  beholden 
to  him,  and  all  my  kin  ;  for  he  was  our  furtherer 
and  promoter." 

"  With  which  would  you  hold,"  asked  Henry, 
"  if  you  saw  me  and  King  Richard  fighting?" 

"  Forsooth,  with  him,"  said  the  brave  priest; 
"  for  I  am  more  beholden  to  him." 

"  What  would  you  succour  him  with?"  asked 
the  King,  sneeringly. 

"  With  a  staff,  perhaps,"  was  the  undaunted 
reply. 

"  What  would  you  do  with  me,  then?" 

"  I  would  make  you  Duke  of  Lancaster." 

"  Ah,"  said  the  tyrant,  "  thou  art  no  friend 
of  mine;  and  thou  shalt  lose  thine  head." 

No  doubt  many  of  the  Lollard  neighbours  of 
this  outspoken  cleric  shared  his  feelings,  for  they 
soon  had  cause  to  look  back  regretfully  to  the 
gentler  days  of  Richard.  In  1400,  as  recorded  in 
Wilkins'  Concilia  (ii ;  248)  one  John  Seynon,  "  of 
Dounton  in  the  diocese  of  Lincoln,"  recanted 
Lollard  doctrines.  He  may  have  been  of  Dunton 
near  Winslow,  though  perhaps  more  probably  of 
Dunton  Basset  near  Lutterworth.  In  1401,  the 
Court  Rolls  of  the  manor  of  Wycombe  contain 
the  entry,  "  Item,  they  present  that  John 
Dryvere  doth  not  set  up  a  cross  upon  his  house." 


EAELY    DAYS    OF    LOLLARDY       47 

The  Lollards,  we  are  told,  held  that  "all  they 
who  do  worship  and  reverence  the  sign  of  the 
cross  do  commit  idolatry;"  and  whether  Dryvere 
was  a  Lollard  or  not,  it  seems  likely  that  the 
authorities  washed  to  show  their  zeal  for  orthodoxy 
by  calling"  attention  to  his  omission. 

This  year  (1401)  was  marked  by  the  enactment 
of  the  terrible  statute  De  Hrrrctico  Comhurendo, 
by  which  obstinate  or  lapsed  heretics  were  liable 
to  be  publicly  burned  to  death.  William  Sawtre, 
a  priest  from  Lynn,  suffered  in  London  this  year 
as  the  proto-martyr  of  Lollardy. 

The  new  law  was  met  in  some  quarters  with 
a  burst  of  indignation.  It  would  almost  seem 
from  the  Patent  Eolls  (2  Hen.  IV.  iv.  17)  that 
the  Friars,  who  were  regarded  as  instigators  of 
the  measure,  could  hardly  pass  through  the  streets 
of  Oxford  or  Cambridge  without  having  their 
habits  torn  from  their  shoulders  by  the  students. 
But  the  Statute  had  a  crushing  effect  on  the  Lol- 
lards as  a  body.  Among  others,  Sir  Lewis 
Clifford,  now  nearly  eighty  years  of  age,  abjured 
their  doctrines.  The  terms  of  his  will,  "  probably 
the  result  of  mental  and  bodily  infirmity,"  express 
the  most  abject  contrition  for  his  heresy,  and  he 
styles  himself  "false  and  traitor  to  his  Lord 
God."  He  bequeaths  certain  Catholic  devotional 
books  to  his  daughter,  the  wife  of  Sir  Philip  de 
la  Vache.  As  Sir  Philip  was  in  high  favour  with 
the  new  king,  he  also  must  have  renounced 
Lollardy,  if  he  had  ever  embraced  it. 

Although  continual  efforts  were  made  to  stamp 


48  THE    LOLLAEDS 

out  Lollaidy  throughout  the  reigu  of  Henry  IV., 
the  work  of  repression  was  far  from  being  entirely 
successful.  There  were  still  persons  of  influence 
who  sheltered  the  wandering  evangelists ;  and 
there  was  a  strong  tendency  even  among  the 
orthodox  laity  to  withstand  the  encroachments 
of  the  clergy.  In  1410  the  Commons  petitioned 
the  Crown  to  resume  the  superfluous  revenues  of 
the  Church.     These  they  estimated  as  being 

As  much  as  would  maintain   to  the  King's 

honour 
Full  fifteen  earls  and  fifteen  hundred  knights, 
Six  thousand  and  two  hundred  good  esquires, 

A  hundred  almshouses  right  well  supplied. 

And  to  the  coffers  of  the  King  beside 
A  thousand  pounds  by  the  year. 

Such  is  Shakespeare's  account  (Henry  V.,  Act 
i.,  Scene  i.)  ;  but  the  actual  sum  named  by  the 
Commons  appears  to  have  been  far  larger.  This 
daring  proposal  is  ascribed  by  Spelman  in  his 
History  of  Sacrilege  to  a  Buckinghamshire  knight, 
Sir  John  Cheyne,  one  of  the  Lollard  family 
already  referred  to.  The  Commons  also  petitioned 
for  the  relaxation  of  the  Statute  of  Heretics ;  but 
neither  request  was  granted. 


CHAPTEE    VI 

THE  FALL  OF  THE  OLDER  LOLLARDY 

The  death  of  Henry  IV.,  in  1413,  and  the 
accession  of  his  son  as  Henry  V.,  were  followed 
by  the  initiation  of  far  more  stringent  measures 
against  the  Lollards.  Sir  John  Oldcastle,  a  per- 
s(jnal  friend  of  the  young  King,  and  one  of  the 
most  distinguished  soldiers  of  the  time,  was 
charged  with  heresy,  and  summoned  to  appear 
before  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  He  at  first 
refused  to  do  so;  but  on  the  King  intervening, 
he  surrendered  himself.  On  his  refusal  to  abjure, 
he  was  excommunicated,  and  handed  over  to  the 
secular  power  to  be  burned  ;  but  before  the  sen- 
tence could  be  carried  into  effect,  he  fled  from 
the  Tower,  and  remained  for  some  time  concealed 
in  or  near  the  borders  of  Wales,  where  his 
ancestral   estates  were  situated. 

Three  or  four  months  after  this  event,  it  was 
suddenly  given  out  tliat  20,000  Lollards  were 
marching  on  London  from  the  country,  and  that 
a  much  larger  number,  mostly  servants  and 
apprentices,  were  ready  to  throw  open  the  City 
gates  and  join  them.  The  gates  were  held  by 
a  strong  force  of  troops  ;  all  egress  was  forbidden  ; 
and  the  young  king  rode  in  from  Eltham,  raised 

49 


60  THE    LOLLARDS 

the  standard  of  the  cross  as  in  a  solemn  crusade, 
and  rode  out  with  his  men-at-arms  on  Sunday 
evening,  January  7th,  1414,  to  St.  Giles's  Fields. 
Here  he  found  a  large  body  of  people,  who  are 
described  as  on  horseback,  but  appear  to  have 
been  unarmed.  Numerous  arrests  were  made, 
not  only  at  "  Thicket  Field,"  in  St.  Giles's,  but 
at  Harringay,  near  Hornsey,  and  within  the  City 
itself.  Five  days  later,  thirty-nine  persons  were 
hanged  and  burned  in  St.  Giles's  Fields,  after  a 
hasty  trial.  The  chroniclers  name  Sir  Roger 
Acton,  William  Murle,  a  rich  brewer  of  Dun- 
stable, John  Beverley,  a  preacher,  and  John 
Brown . 

What  was  the  object  of  this  gathering?  It  was 
asserted  that  the  Lollards  intended  to  kill  the 
King  and  his  three  brothers,  with  all  the  prelates 
and  nobles,  to  rase  to  the  ground  all  the  cathedrals 
and  abbeys,  and  to  compel  all  monks  and  friars 
to  earn  their  living.  On  the  other  hand,  most 
Protestant  writers  have  followed  Foxe  in  his 
contention  that  the  gathering  in  St.  Giles's 
Fields  was  nothing  but  a  rehgious  assembly  to 
listen  to  the  preaching  of  Beverley.  It  seems 
most  likely  that  the  Lollards  had  formed  some 
wild  plan  of  revolt.  Many  of  them,  no  doubt, 
regarded  the  rule  of  the  House  of  Lancaster  as 
a  usurpation.  Then,  too,  if  there  is  any  truth  in 
Shakespeare's  portraiture  of  "  Mad  Prince  Hal," 
and  if,  as  is  stated,  the  Lollards  had  deduced  from 
Wycliffe's  doctrine  of  "  dominion  founded  in 
grace  "  the    dangerous   corollary   that  a   wicked 


FALL    OF    OLDER    LOLLAEDY       51 

ruler  had  forfeited  his  right  to  rule,  the  King's 
early  life  may  have  seemed  to  the  Lollards  to 
justify  an  insurrection,  in  which  they  may  have 
hoped  to  be  supplied  with  arms  by  their  friends 
within  the  City.  May  not  the  movement,  really 
have  been  (like  the  risings  in  1402  and  1405,  and 
the  Earl  of  Cambridge's  plot  in  1415),  in  favour 
of  young  Edmund  Mortimer,  whose  pretensions 
it  was  not  safe  to  name  publicly,  as  he  was  in 
the  power  of  King  Henry  at  the  time?  It  is  at 
least  suggestive  that  places  in  Herefordshire 
pointed  out  as  refuges  of  the  Lollards,  including 
the  curious  little  building  in  Deerfold  Forest, 
traditionally  known  as  the  "  Lollard  Chapel," 
are  close  to  the  old  stronghold  of  the  Mortimers 
at  Wigmore.  Oldcastle  himself  is  said  to  have 
believed  that  Richard  II.  was  still  alive  in  Scot- 
land ;  and  it  is  surely  just  as  likely  that  the 
movement  was  really  a  Legitimist  one  as  that 
it  had  the  levelling  and  Socialistic  character 
ascribed  to  it  by  some  writers. 

In  the  Patent  Rolls  of  Henry  V.  we  find  a 
document  (1  Hen.  V.  v.  24)  setting  forth  that 
William  Turnour,  Walter  Yonge,  and  John 
Hazel wode,  of  Agmondesham  (Amersham)  and 
John  Fynche,  of  Missenden,  had  been  sentenced 
to  death  for  favouring  certain  "  preachers  against 
the  liing's  person,"  and  their  goods  and  chattels 
confiscated  to  the  Crown  ;  further,  that  the  King, 
compassionating  their  widows,  Isabel  Turnour, 
Alice  Yonge,  Isabel  Hazelwode,  and  Matilda 
Fynche,  granted  the  said  goods  and  chattels  to 


62  THE    LOLLARDS 

them  for  the  support  of  themselves  and  children. 
It  does  not  appear  whether  these  four  men,  evi- 
dently in  a  respectable  position  in  life,  had  been 
executed  in  Buckinghamshire,  or  whether,  as  is 
more  probable,  they  were  among  those  put  to 
death  in  St.  Giles's  Fields.  Turner  and  Finch 
are  still  common  names  in  the  district. 

A  httle  later  (Pat.  2  Hen.  V.  ii.  1 ;  iii.  23)  we 
find  the  King  pardoning  certain  persons  who  had 
been  sentenced  to  be  hanged,  drawn,  and  quar- 
tered, for  their  complicity  in  the  alleged  rebellion. 
Among  those  in  the  first  list,  numbering  twenty- 
seven,  appear  the  names  of  John  Angret,  parson 
of  Isenhamstead  Latimer,  who  had  been  presen- 
ted to  the  living  by  Richard  II.  in  1396  ;  Thomas 
Sydyly,  alias  Sedely,  of  Wycombe  Heath, 
fletcher ;  and  aso  one  Horton,  alias  Spycer,  late 
of  Wycombe,  but  now  of  Coffin  Lane,  Dowgate 
Ward,  cooper.  Another  name  is  that  of  John 
Wytheryn,  parson  of  the  church  of  Wydyngton, 
perhaps  Wiggenton,  a  parish  in  Herts,  but  almost 
s'UTounded  by  Buckinghamshire.  At  the  head  of 
the  second  list  stands  the  name  of  John  Langacre 
of  Wycombe,  formerly  of  London  ;  and  the  fourth 
name  (there  are  thirteen  in  all)  is  that  of  Richard 
Sprotford,  of  Agmondesham,  carpenter.  Out  of 
forty  names  in  these  two  lists,  there  are  thus  five 
belonging  to  Buckinghamshire.  There  appear  to 
be  two  from  Ijondon,  four  from  Oxfordshire  (one 
a  student,  and  one  a  parish  priest)  five  from 
Northamptonshire,  five  from  Leicestershire,  two 
from  Yorkshire,  and  one  from  each  of  the  counties 


FALL    OF    OLDER    LOLLAEDY       53 

of  Warwick,  Suffolk,  Lincoln,  Bedford,  Derby, 
Chester,  Essex,  and  Somerset.  Of  the  remaining 
eight,  one  or  two  are  illegible,  and  in  the  rest 
the  county  is  not  stated.  It  will  be  noted  that 
the  counties  most  numerously  represented  are 
just  those  the  road  from  which  would  enter  Lon- 
don by  St.  Giles,  and  that  the  band  would  pass 
through  Buckinghamshire  at  the  time  when  it 
had  probably  swollen  to  formidable  numbers,  and 
would  thus  encourage  local  sympathisers  to  join 
it.  Five  out  of  the  forty  were  priests.  Oldcastle 
himself  is  said  to  have  been  near  London,  to  have 
had  a  narrow  escape  from  arrest  somewhere  close 
to  St.  Albans,  and  to  have  fled  again  into  Wales  ; 
but  the  accounts  are  vague  and  confused. 

So  far  we  have  traced  nine  persons  in  Bucking- 
hamshire (including  one  who  had  removed  to 
London)  as  having  been  concerned  in  the  move- 
ment ;  and  all  of  these  belong  to  the  district  round 
Wycombe  and  Amersham.  Local  tradition  tells 
of  a  Lollard  who  is  said  to  have  been  put  into  a 
barrel  lined  with  tenter-hooks,  and  rolled  down 
a  steep  field  to  the  north  of  Amersham  Church. 
Hence,  it  is  said,  the  name  of  "  Tenter  Field  "^ 
which  it  still  bears.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the 
town,  close  to  the  Upper  Baptist  Chapel  (an 
ancient  Nonconformist  meeting-house  to  which 
we  shall  have  occasion  to  refer  again)  is  a  meadow 
known  as  Harbour  Field.  Here,  till  a  few  years 
ago,  was  a  clump  of  aged  trees,  wych-elm  and 
sycamore,  pointed  out  by  a  vague  tradition  as  a 

'  See  note,  p.  54. 


64  THE    LOLLARDS 

favourite  resort  of  the  Lollards.  I  once  heard  at 
Amersham  a  curious  story,  the  source  of  which  I 
have  entirely  forgotten,  concerning  a  Lollard  who 
had  climbed  among  the  thick  boughs  of  one  of 
these  trees  to  read  a  MS.  book,  when  the  precious 
scroll  slipped  from  his  grasp,  fluttered  to  the 
ground,  and  led  to  his  arrest.  We  cannot  attach 
much  importance  to  these  vague  legends,  and  the 
story  of  the  barrel  of  tenter-hooks  seems  particu- 
larly improbable.^  If  ever  such  an  atrocity  was 
committed,  it  would  probably  be  in  some  outbreak 
of  popular  violence,  such  as  might  be  expected  to 
follow  the  suppression  of  the  revolt  of  1414.  In 
any  case,  the  Nonconformists  of  the  neighbour- 
hood, with  a  true  instinct,  have  never  ceased  to 
regard  their  Lollard  forefathers  as  the  first 
pioneers  in  the  struggle  for  religious  and  civil 
liberties,  which  was  so  nobly  carried  on  upon  the 
same  spot  b}^  their  Quaker  and  Puritan  successors 
of  the  seventeenth  century. 

But  the  nine  already  named  were  not  the  only 
or  the  most  important  Buckinghamshire  men 
charged  with  complicity  in  the  rising.  In 
Bymer's  Foedera  (ix.  120)  is  preserved  a  docu- 
ment in  which  a  general  pardon  is  granted  to  the 
Lollards,  with  certain  exceptions.  Among  those 
excepted   are    Sir  John    Oldcastle,    Sir   Thomas 

I  Further,  the  name  "  Tenter  Field  "  is  common  in  old  maps 
of  the  17th  century,  and  earlier,  (e.g.  Ogilby  and  Morgan's 
Map  of  London,  1677)  as  the  name  of  fields  where  cloth  is 
stretched  on  "  tenters  ''  (frames  fitted  with  tenter-hooks)  to 
dry. 


FALL    OF    OLDER   LOLLAEDY       55 

Talbot,  Thomas  Cheyne,  the  younger  son  of  Roger 
Cheyne,  lord  of  Drayton  Beauchamp,  and  Thomas 
Drayton,  rector  of  the  some  parish,  both  of  the 
last  being  prisoners  in  the  Tower.  Thomas 
Cheyne  seems  to  have  made  his  submission,  as 
he  was  at  liberty  shortly  afterwards.  Browne 
Willis  says  that  Roger  Cheyne  himself  died  and 
was  buried  in  the  Tower  about  this  time  ;  but 
this  seems  doubtful,  as  a  memorial  slab,  believed 
to  be  his,  exists  in  the  parish  church  of  Cassing- 
ton,  Oxfordshire,  where  the  Cheynes  had  an 
estate.  It  is  not  a  little  remarkable,  however, 
that  there  exists  an  inquisition  of  his  extensive 
property  in  the  counties  of  Buckingham,  Oxford, 
and  Herts,  which  seems  to  have  been  made  during 
his  lifetime,  as  though  his  estates  had  been  for- 
feited by  some  offence.  If  so,  they  were  restored 
to  his  elder  son  John,  who  was  several  times 
Knight  of  the  Shire  and  Sheriff  of  Bucks.  John 
Cheyne,  like  his  younger  brother,  displayed 
earnest  religious  zeal,  although  in  an  opposite 
direction.  He  made  a  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy 
Land,  and  received  the  honour  of  knighthood  for 
his  exploits  there.  His  epitaph  states  that  he 
endured  great  hardships  among  the  Saracens,  that 
he  slew  a  giant  near  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  and 
that  he  lived  fifty-five  years  after  his  return,  and 
reached  the  age  of  nearly  a  hundred.  A  few 
years  ago  the  grave  of  this  Sir  John  Cheyne  was 
opened,  when  it  was  discovered  that  he  must  have 
been  nearly  seven  feet  in  height,  and  that  his 
teeth  were  sound  and  perfect  to  the  last.      After 


56  THE    LOLLARDS 

the  death  of  his  widow,  who  survived  him  twenty- 
six  years,  the  manor  of  Drayton  passed  to  his 
great-nephew,  John  Cheyne  of  Chesham  Bois, 
grandson  of  Thomas  Cheyne,  the  Lollard. 
The  grandson  and  great-grandson  of  this 
John  Cheyne,  Robert  and  John,  were  among 
the  staunchest  Protestants  in  the  district 
in  the  days  of  Edward  VI.  and  Elizabeth.  It 
was  the  latter  who,  in  1584,  presented  the  illus- 
trious Richard  Hooker  to  the  living  of  Drayton 
Beauchamp,  and  there  seems  some  reason  to  think 
that  he  disinherited  his  own  son  for  his  adherence 
to  Romanism.  (See  the  account  of  this  in- 
teresting family  by  the  late  Rev.  W.  H.  Kelke, 
in  the  Records  of  Buckinghamshire,  i.  293-301; 
ii.  128-135). 

The  movement  of  1414,  whatever  its  real  aims 
may  have  been,  must  have  taken  a  deep  root  in 
the  district  to  unite  in  its  support  the  tradesmen 
and  yeomen  from  Wycombe  and  Amersham,  the 
squire's  son  from  the  manor-house  of  Drayton, 
the  priest  from  the  secluded  vale  of  Tsenhamstead 
Latimer,  and  the  peasant  who  plucked,  on  the 
lonely  .slopes  of  Wycombe  Heath,  the  "  grey  goose 
quills  "  which  might  be  used  next  year  by  the 
bowmen  of  Agincourt.  Of  course  it  is  not  certain 
or  likely  that  all  of  these  Buckingham.shire  sym- 
pathisers with  the  revolt  were  present  at ' '  Thicket 
Field  "  by  St.  Giles's.  The  actions  which  led  to 
their  arrest  may  have  taken  place  in  their  own 
neighbourhood. 

In  the  same   year    (1414)    Parliament,   which 


FALL    OF    OLDER    LOLLARDY       57 

met  at  Leicester,  "  for  the  great  favour  that  the 
Lord  Cobham  had  in  London,"  passed  a  crushing 
Act  for  the  suppression  of  Lollardy,  known  as 
"the  Merciless  Statute."  Everyone  convicted 
of  heresy  was  to  forfeit  his  possessions  ;  and  an 
oath  was  administered  to  all  magistrates,  from 
the  Lord  Chancellor  downwards,  that  he  would 
endeavour  to  extirpate  "  all  manner  of  heresies, 
errors,  and  Lollardies."  It  was  not  until  1625 
that  this  oath  was  disused,  the  word  "  Lollardy  " 
being  construed  after  the  Reformation  of  any  doc- 
trines dangerous  to  public  order.  In  the  year 
named,  the  great  Sir  Edward  Coke,  on  being 
appointed  High  Sheriff  of  Buckinghamshire, 
declined  to  take  the  oath  in  this  form,  on  the 
ground  (scarcely  correct,  by  the  way)  that  the 
doctrines  of  the  Lollards  had  been  endorsed  by 
the  Church  of  England  ;  and  this  led  to  the  dis- 
continuance of  the  oath. 

The  later  years  of  Henry  V.  were  marked  by 
severe  persecution.  A  prominent  incident  in 
this  was  the  cruel  death  of  Sir  John  Oldcastle, 
who,  having  been  captured  in  Wales,  was  exe- 
cuted in  St.  Giles's  Fields  in  February,  1418. 
He  was  hanged  in  chains,  and  a  fire  was  lighted 
beneath  him,  so  that  he  might  be  "  hanged  as 
a  traitor  and  burned  as  a  heretic." 

It  is  curious  that  not  only  did  this  intensely 
Catholic  King  fail  to  suppress  Lollardy,  which 
was  still  so  strong  at  the  close  of  his  reign  that 
Archbishop  Chichele  said  that  nothing  but  an 
armed  force  would  put  it  down ;   but  owing  to 


58  THE    LOLLARDS 

political  exigencies,  his  reign  was  marked  by  the 
first  great  step  in  the  interference  of  the  State 
with  monasticism.  This  was  the  suppression  of 
the  "alien  priories."  In  Buckinghamshire, 
those  of  Newton  Longville  and  Wing,  with  the 
hospital  at  Ludgershall,  were  suppressed  in  this 
reign.  The  property  of  Newton  passed  to  New 
College,  Oxford,  and  Wing  was  granted  to  a  nun- 
nery at  St.  Albans ;  but  Ludgershall  became 
Crown  property.  Tickford  had  already  been 
suppressed  by  Edward  IIL ,  though  Henry  IV. 
had  restored  it  as  a  cell  of  a  monastery  near  York. 
The  persecution  continued  after  the  accession 
of  the  child-king  Henry  VI.  in  1422.  In  1428,  the 
year  in  which  Wycliff'e's  bones  were  exhumed  and 
burned  to  ashes  at  Lutterworth,  a  number  of 
Lollards  were  compelled  to  abjure  their  belief  in 
London.  Among  them  as  we  read  in  Wilkins' 
Concilia  (iii.  493)  was  one  "  Master  Eobert," 
parish  priest  of  "  Heggeley,  in  the  diocese  of  Lin- 
coln," who  had  formerly,  it  is  said,  been 
confessor  to  a  certain  ' '  robber  ' '  named  William 
Wawe,  to  whom  other  aillusions  occur  at  this 
period.  Robert  had  long  been  imprisoned  in 
the  Tower,  and  on  July  20th  he  was  brought 
in  chains  before  Chichele,  sitting  in  Convocation, 
and  questioned  on  the  sacrament  of  the  altar, 
pilgrimages,  the  worship  of  images,  and  the  law- 
fulness of  churchmen  holding  temporal  lordships. 
His  answers  being  unsatisfactory,  he  was  com- 
mitted to  the  custody  of  Bishop  Fleming,  and, 
though  he  abjured  at  Paul's  Cross,  was  imprisoned 


FALL    OF    OLDER    LOLLAEDY       59 

for  life.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  "  Hegge- 
ley  "  was  Hedgerley  in  Bucks,  a  village  about 
seven  miles  south  of  Amersham. 

About  the  same  time  Eichard  Monk,  vicar  of 
Chesham,  made  his  submission  (Wilkins,  iii. 
302),  and  his  recantation  was  read  at  Paul's  Cross 
in  December  of  the  same  year.  Foxe  (iii.  538) 
speaks  of  both  Chesham  and  "  Heggeley  "  as  in 
Lincolnshire,  confusing  the  county  with  the 
diocese. 

In  the  spring  of  1431,  Humphrey,  Duke  of 
Gloucester,  the  uncle  of  the  young  king,  and 
Protector  of  the  kingdom,  rode  with  men-at-arms 
to  Abingdon,  to  suppress  an  alleged  Lollard 
revolt.  He  seized  the  Bailiff  of  the  town,  William 
Mandeville,  who  was  accused  of  having  threat- 
ened a  general  massacre  of  priests,  and  who  was 
hanged,  drawn,  and  quartered,  his  head  being 
set  on  London  Bridge.  Another  leader.  Jack 
Sharpe,  arrested  at  Oxford,  shared  his  fate.  This 
movement  occurred  near  enough  to  the  Bucking- 
hamshire border  to  render  it  possible  that 
inhabitants  of  the  county  might  take  part ;  but 
we  have  no  proof  that  such  was  the  case. 

Lollardy  was  now  burdened  with  the  odium 
of  a  supposed  connection  with  four  successive 
revolts.  How  far  this  odium  was  deserved,  is 
very  doubtful.  The  earliest  of  the  four,  the  great 
peasant  rising  under  Eichard  II.,  was  mainly  due 
as  we  have  seen,  to  social  and  economic  causes, 
and  it  is  significant  that  John  of  Gaunt,  who  up 
till  then  had  been   Wycliffe's  patron,   was    the 


60  THE    LOLLAEDS 

object  of  the  fiercest  hatred  of  the  commons. 
SaHsbury's  rebellion  against  Henry  IV.  in  1400 
was  purely  political,  and  was  prompted  by  gener- 
ous loyalty  to  a  fallen  king.  We  have  already 
seen  what  uncertainty  surrounds  the  real  aims 
of  the  St.  Giles's  Fields  rising  in  1414.  And 
it  is  impossible  to  say  to  what  extent  the  obscure 
movement  headed  by  Mandeville  and  Sharpe  was 
really  of  Lollard  origin,  or  whether,  if  it  were 
so,  there  was  any  foundation  for  the  violent  pur- 
poses ascribed  to  it.  There  may  be  traced  all 
through  this  period  two  distinct  lines  of  influence 
often  confused  by  opponents,  and  sometimes  both 
affecting  the  same  persons  in  varying  degrees. 
The  one  was  theological,  and  commenced  with 
Wycliffe  ;  the  other  socialistic,  with  a  religious 
tinge,  and  commencing  with  men  like  Langland 
and  Ball.  Some  of  the  Lollards  seem  to  have 
held  the  doctrine  of  non-resistance  ;  and  if  others 
erred  in  taking  the  carnal  sword,  they  terribly 
atoned  for  their  error.  Anyhow,  it  is  remarkable 
that  no  accusation  of  treason  or  disloyalty  is 
brought  against  them  after  1431.  As  with  the 
I^uritans  after  the  Restoration,  another  work  lay 
before  them,  more  pacific,  more  obscure,  but  not 
less  important. 

Archbishop  Trench,  in  his  Lectures  on  Medice.- 
val  Church  History  (pp.  322,  323)  speaks  of 
1431  as  the  date  at  which  the  persecution  of  the 
Lollards  suddenly  ceased.  This  is  correct  to  a 
certain  extent,  though  later  researches  have 
shown   that  occasional    charges  of   heresy    were 


FALL    OF    OLDER    LOLLARDY       61 

made  all  through  the  century.  Trench  is  inclined 
to  ascribe  the  lull  in  the  persecution  to  sheer 
weariness  on  the  part  of  the  persecutors.  He 
admits  that  the  "  aggressive  force  "  of  Lollardy 
was  spent ;  that  the  loss  of  Oxford,  and  the  death 
or  recantation  of  one  after  another  of  its  leaders, 
had  destroyed  its  academic  and  political  influence, 
and  that  it  was  no  longer  "  a  power  claiming 
recognition  in  Church  and  State,  and  in  fact 
demanding  that  both  should  be  fashioned  and 
moulded  according  to  its  notions." 

He  goes  on  however  to  say  : — 

"  But  of  its  continued  existence,  not  seeking 
any  more  to  transform  England  at  once,  but  to 
reach  its  ends  by  slov>'er  means,  by  the  winning 
of  one  convert  after  another,  abundant  evidence 

remains Large  and  open  gatherings  for 

the  preaching  of  the  Word  were  not  indeed  any 
more  attempted.  The  itinerant  preacher  had 
given  place  to  the  itinerant  reader,  who  was  never 
more  active  than  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  and 
beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century.  There  were 
little  assemblies  or  conventicles  everywhere  ;  and 
it  might  put  to  a  wholesome  shame  our  careless, 
unthankful  use  of  Holy  Scripture,  to  read  how 
precious  the  Word  in  those  days  was ;  how  men 
came  together  by  night,  at  peril  of  their  lives,  in 
lonely  houses,  in  barns,  in  stables,  to  hear  some 
tract  which  should  expound  that  Word  ....  or 
oftener  still,  to  listen  to  Scripture  itself,  a  Gospel, 
or  the  Apocalypse,  dear  ever  to  those  that  suffer 
tribulation,    or    a    Pauline    Epistle,    or,    which 


62  THE    LOLLAEDS 

noticeably  enough  was  a  still  more  favourite 
reading,  the  Epistle  of  St.  James.  And  so  the 
Lollards  lived  on  ;  and  when  the  Eeformation  came 
at  last,  these  humble  men  did  much,  as  we  may 
well  believe,  to  contribute  to  it  that  element  of 
sincerity,  truth,  and  uprightness,  without  which 
it  never  could  have  succeeded  ;  while  yet,  as  must 
be  sorrowfully  owned,  this  element  was  miserably 
lacking  in  many  who,  playing  foremost  parts  in 
the  carrying  of  a  Eeformation  through,  yet  sought 
in  it  not  the  things  of  God,  but  their  own." 

This  estimate  is  far  nearer  the  truth  than  that 
of  Froude,  (i.  502),  who  speaks  of  the  Lollard 
movement  as  a  mere  "  prologue  "  or  "rehearsal  " 
of  the  drama  of  the  Eeformation,  and  asserts  that 
in  the  sixteenth  century  there  remained  no  trace 
of  Lollardy  save  "  a  black  memory  of  contempt 
and  hatred." 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  there  are  few 
periods  of  English  history  of  which  we  have 
scantier  records  than  of  the  period  from  1430  to 
1480.  The  policy  of  the  Inquisition  had  borne 
its  natural  fruit  in  the  suppression  of  all  intel- 
lectual life.  "Never  before,"  says  Mr.  J.  E. 
Green,  "  had  English  literature  fallen  so  low.  A 
few  tedious  moralists  alone  preserved  the  name 
of  poetry.  History  died  down  into  the  merest 
fragments  and  annals.  Even  the  religious  enthu- 
siasm of  the  people  seemed  to  have  spent  itself, 
or  to  have  been  crushed  out  by  the  bishops'  courts. 
The  one  belief  of  the  time  was  in  sorcery  and 
magic."     A  most  fearful  picture  of  the  state  of 


FALL    OF    OLDER    LOLLAEDY       63 

the  Church  is  drawn  by  Gascoigne,  Chancellor 
of  Oxford,  in  a  MS.  referred  to  by  Professor 
Thorold  Rogers  in  his  Six  Centuries  of  Work  and 
Wages  (ch.  xiii.).  He  says  that  many  of  the 
monasteries  deserved  to  be  suppressed  as  dens 
of  gluttony,  drunkenness,  and  vice;  that  the 
Bishops  of  Salisbury,  Norwich,  and  Carlisle,  who 
held  high  offices  of  state,  were  greedy,  negligent, 
and  scandalous ;  and  he  casts  serious  imputations 
on  the  moral  character  of  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  (John  Stafford)  himself.  He  also 
denounces  with  Luther-hke  vehemence  the  action 
of  Pope  Eugenius  IV.,  who  in  1440,  sent  to 
England  an  agent,  named  Pietro  di  Monte,  for 
the  sale  of  indulgences.  Yet  it  must  not  be  for- 
gotten that  this  dark  period  saw  a  seed  sown  in 
Buckinghamshire  soil,  by  the  foundation  of  Eton 
in  1440,  which  was  destined  to  bear  rich  fruit  in 
after  ages. 

In  1439  a  priest  named  Richard  Wyche  was 
burned  for  heresy  on  Tower  Hill.  Stow  says 
he  was  vicar  of  "  Hermetsworth,"  by  which  he 
no  doubt  means  Harmondsworth,  a  parish  in 
Middlesex,  bordering  on  the  Bucks  parish  of  Iver, 
and  within  a  few  miles  of  Amersham  and  Ches- 
ham.  It  would  be  interesting  to  connect  Wyche 
with  the  Lollard  district,  but  there  is  reason  to 
think  that  Stow  has  confounded  him  with  another 
Richard  Wyche,  who  was  vicar  of  Haraionds- 
worth  a  few  years  later,  and  that  the  martyr  was 
vicar  of  Deptford.  Wyche  was  over  eighty  years 
of  age.    He  was  very  probably  a  pupil  of  Wychffe, 


64  THE    LOLLARDS 

and  had  almost  certainly  corresponded  with  John 
Huss.  Immense  interest  was  awakened  after  his 
death  by  the  fact  that  a  fragrant  perfume  arising 
from  his  ashes  was  distinctly  perceptible.  Pil- 
grims flocked  to  the  scene  of  his  martyrdom,  and 
a  rude  stone  monument  was  erected  on  the  spot, 
placed  there  by  unknown  hands  at  night.  But 
on  inquiiy  it  appeared  that  the  vicar  of  the 
adjoining  parish  of  Allhallows  Barking  had  mixed 
spices  with  the  ashes,  in  order  to  sell  them  to 
the  people.  A  proclamation  was  issued  forbidding 
resort  to  the  place,  and  the  affair  was  soon  for- 
gotten. 


CHAPTER    VII 

UNDER   THE    WHITE   ROSE  OF  YORK 

One  reason  for  the  cessation  of  persecution 
referred  to  in  the  last  chapter  was  probably  the 
growing  weakness  of  the  House  of  Lancaster. 
The  losses  in  France,  the  rebellion  of  Cade  in 
1450  (when  there  is  no  mention  of  religious 
grievances),  and  above  all  the  outbreak  of  the 
Wars  of  the  Roses  in  1455,  might  all  tend  to 
make  its  supporters  feel  it  impolitic  to  add  to 
the  number  of  its  enemies.  As  Fuller  beautifully 
says  of  the  Lollards,  "  The  very  storm  was  their 
shelter."  The  murder  by  the  populace  of  the 
Bishops  of  Salisbury  and  Chichester  in  1450 
would  also  tend  to  alarm  and  restrain  the  prelates, 
as  they  saw  how  thoroughly  unpopular  their  order 
had  become. 

In  the  struggle  over  the  succession  we  may 
be  pretty  sure  that  the  sympathies  of  the  Lollards 
would  be  with  the  House  of  York.  They  had 
assuredly  no  cause  to  love  the  Lancastrian  kings ; 
and  it  is  noteworthy  that  the  strength  of  the 
Yorkists  lay  in  the  districts  where  the  Lollards 
were  most  numerous. 

Yet  as  soon  as  Edward  IV.  was  firmly  estab- 
65 


66  THE    LOLLAEDS 

lished  on  the  throne,  we  find  signs  of  a  renewal 
of  persecution,  and  this  affects  the  very  parishes 
in  Buckinghamshire  where  Lollardy  had  been 
so  strong  in  1414  and  1428.  In  1457,  Edmund 
Brudenell,  lord  of  the  manor  of  Amersham,  had 
bequeathed  certain  English  Bibles  (probably  of 
Wycliffe's  version)  to  the  University  of  Oxford 
(See  Records  of  Bucks,  i.  297).  Now,  in  or  about 
1462,  as  appears  by  the  Lincoln  Eegister  of  Bis- 
hop Chedworth  (fol.  62,  a.t.),  proceeedings  for 
heresy  were  taken  against  persons  who  had 
probably  been  tenants  of  Brudenell's — John 
Baron,  Geoffrey  Symeon,  John  Crane,  and  Eobert 
Body,  of  Agmondesham  (Amersham).  Their 
confessions  are  very  interesting. 

Baron  had  been  acquainted  with  one  Hugh 
Leche,  who  held  "a  damnable  opinion  against 
pilgrimages  and  the  worshipping  of  saints,"  and 
who  taught  that  it  was  sufficient  for  salvation  to 
keep  the  ten  commandments,  and  that  the  sacra- 
ment of  the  altar  was  mere  bread.  He  had  also 
listened  many  times  to  William  Belgrave,  and  to 
John  White  of  Chesham,  who  "  taught  and  held 
many  heresies  against  the  seven  sacraments  of 
Holy  Church."  Baron  owned  to  the  possession 
of  three  books  in  English.  The  first  contained 
"The  Life  of  our  Lady,"  "The  Mirror  of 
Sinners,"  and  "  The  Mirror  of  Matrimony," 
with  sermons  on  Adam  and  Eve  and  other  sub- 
jects. The  second  was  "a  book  of  Tales  of 
Canterbury  "  (no  doubt  Chaucer's),  and  the  third 
was  "  a  play  of  St.  Dionise."     The  very  posses- 


UNDEK    THE    WHITE    EOSE         67 

sion  of  an  English  book  seems  to  have  been 
regarded  as  suspicious.  Questioned  as  to  his  own 
views,  Baron  admitted  that  he  had  Hstened  with 
pleasure  to  Leche's  teaching,  and  had  given 
"faith,  credence,  and  belief"  to  his  views  as 
to  pilgrimages  and  image-worship,  holding  that 
to  do  good  to  the  poor  was  better  "  than  to  seek 
or  worship  any  saint  or  image  on  earth."  But 
he  denied  having  held  any  heretical  doctrine  as 
to  the  sacraments.  He  had  kept  his  views  to 
himself,  except  when  he  had  talked  them  over 
with  a  friend  named  Spicer.  Baron  now  sued 
for  mercy,  and  submitted  to  the  correction  of  the 
Church,  as  did  also  Symeon,  Crane,  and  Body. 
Geoffrey  Symeon  had  learned  his  views  from  one 
James  Wylly,  who  had  given  him  "  an  English 
book  of  the  Holy  Gospels,"  and  who  had  after- 
wards been  burned  as  a  heretic  in  London.  He 
had  also  known  John  White  of  Chesham,  who 
was  "  diffamed  of  heresy  "  ;  and  when  William 
Rparman,  the  Bishop's  officer,  had  come  to  Amer- 
sham  to  seek  for  heretics,  he  and  Body  had  given 
White  warning.  His  statement  of  his  views  was 
similar  to  Baron's,  w4th  one  curious  addition.  "  I 
have  dogmatised,"  he  said,  "  that  bishops  should 
go  on  foot  with  twelve  priests,  clothed  as  the 
sheep  beareth  all  in  white,  teaching  the  people 
the  true  Christian  faith  ;  but  they  teach  the  people 
that  is  false  and  untrue,  against  God's  law." 
There  may  be  here  a  dim  reminiscence  of  the 
Poor  Priests,  whose  gowns  of  "russet"  were 
made  of  undyed  black  wool. 


68  THE    LOLLAEDS 

John  Crane  had  been  conversant  with  persons 
"  noised  and  suspect  of  heresy,"  and  had  even 
found  an  heretical  adviser  in  a  parish  priest,  the 
parson  of  Chesham  Bois,  by  whose  "  counsel  and 
motion  "  he  had  left  off  giving  his  alms. 

Robert  Body  (whose  surname  is  still  a  common 
one  in  the  district)  had  been  "  conversant  with 
heretics,  hearing  their  dogmatizations,  hiding  and 
keeping  their  counsels,  and  giving  them  warning 
when  William  Sparman  and  other  officers  of  the 
Bishop's  came  into  the  country  to  seek  them." 

The  Bishop  of  Lincoln  had  at  this  time  a 
stately  country  seat  at  Wooburn ,  in  Buckingham- 
shire (to  be  carefully  distinguished  from  the 
better  known  Woburn  in  Beds).  Here  on  August 
21st,  1462,  John  Policy,  of  Henley-on-Thames, 
abjured  before  Bishop  Chedworth,  and  promised 
to  give  information  of  any  heretical  persons  or 
books  he  might  know  of  for  the  future,  after 
which  he  received  the  Bishop's  absolution.  Policy 
had  disbelieved  in  purgatory  and  transubstanti- 
ation,  had  objected  to  images  in  churches,  and 
had  held  that  the  offerings  made  to  them  had 
better  be  given  to  the  poor.  "  Also  that  the 
sacrament  of  Baptime  doon  with  the  .observaunces 
of  the  Churche  and  in  the  fonte  is  not  necessary ; 
but  to  crysten  a  child  rather  in  a  Eyver  or  a 
ponde."  ~~ 

On  October  11th  another  Henley  heretic  was 
cited  before  the  Bishop  in  High  Wycombe  Church , 
which  had  lately  been  greatly  adorned  and  beauti- 
fied.    "  All  the  piers  and  arches,  the  roofs  in  the 


UNDER    THE    WHITE    EOSE         69 

nave,  the  aisles,  and  the  clerestory  windows," 
show  early  fifteenth-century  work.  It  was  about 
four  years  later  that  the  wealthy  burgess  William 
Redehode  adorned  the  church  with  elaborately 
carved  oak  screens.  An  inventory  taken  in  1475, 
and  preserved  in  Parker's  History  and  Antiquities 
of  Wycombe  (p.  106)  gives  a  vivid  idea  of  the 
ritual  of  those  days.  It  will  be  read  with  a  sigh 
of  regret  by  those  ecclesiastical  sentimentahsts 
who  mourn  over  the  vanished  glories  of  the  past 
(while  they  sometimes  seem  to  have  no  regrets 
to  spare  for  the  defacement  of  the  living  temples 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  by  the  flame,  the  branding- 
iron,  and  the  quartering-knife).  We  read  of 
vestments  of  costly  brocade,  one  suit  of  red, 
embroidered  with  golden-damask  foliage,  with 
birds  and  lions;  another  of  blue,  wrought  with 
green  branches  and  golden  birds ;  another  with 
golden  birds  on  a  ground  of  white.  Other  suits 
were  of  stuff,  with  green  and  gold  foliage; 
of  red  velvet,  with  golden  crowns;  of 
green  velvet;  of  red  silk,  with  white 
embroidery;  of  cloth  of  gold;  of  blue  silk, 
with  golden  rays  ;  and  one  of  black  for  requiem 
masses.  There  were  seven  chasubles,  one  embroi- 
dered with  golden  apes,  sporting  amid  violet 
branches ;  another  with  golden  birds  on  a  red 
ground.  There  were  white  and  black  copes,  with 
embroidery  of  blue  and  gold,  presented  by 
William  Eedehode  ;  long  "  houselling  "  towels 
for  the  administration  of  the  sacrament ;  cushions 
of  silk  and  brocade  ;  palls,  and  veils,  and  lectern- 


70  THE    LOLLAKDS 

cloths.  Of  the  altar-cloths,  one  had  golden 
squirrels  and  green  foliage  on  a  black  ground. 
Another  was  similiar,  but  with  hinds  instead  of 
squirrels.  Others  were  of  imitation  cloth  of  gold, 
or  of  blue  worsted  with  golden  flowers  and  silver 
spangles.  There  were  silken  banners,  on  one  of 
which  the  Trinity  was  depicted  on  a  blue  ground  ; 
silken  pennons  and  pendants;  rich  canopies,  one 
of  purple  silk  with  gilded  ornaments,  another  of 
lawn ,  with  a  fringe  of  red  and  gold  ;  curtains  of 
blue  sarsenet  and  purple  silk ;  and  a  cloth  of 
gold  to  cover  the  "  sepulchre."  Six  silver  chali- 
ces, all  but  one  gilt,  were  provided  for  the  service 
of  the  altar,  with  patens  to  correspond.  Two 
candlesticks  of  latten  (fine  brass)  stood  on  the 
high  altar,  two  very  large  ones  in  the  choir,  and 
two  more  in  St.  Nicholas'  chancel.  There  were 
various  other  ornaments  of  silver,  as  candlesticks, 
basons,  "  shippes  "  and  "  crewettes,"  besides 
censers  with  silver  chains.  The  pax  was  of  silver 
gilt,  set  with  jewels;  and  there  were  costly 
reliquaries,  and  several  crosses,  one  of  which  was 
of  copper  gilt,  set  with  precious  stones.  Lastly, 
a  number  of  service-books  are  mentioned,  some 
of  them  no  doubt  in  costly  bindings. 

Into  the  midst  of  these  imposing  splendours 
was  brought,  on  the  date  above  mentioned, 
William  Aylward  of  Henley,  master  blacksmith. 
The  Wars  of  the  Koses  were  not  ended.  The 
battle  of  Hexham  had  been  fought  a  few  months 
before.  But  the  pilgrims  still  went  on  their  way 
to  the  shrine  of  St.  Thomas  at  Canterbury.  Some 


UNDER    THE    WHITE    ROSE  71 

little  time  before,  as  some  of  them  were  passing 
Ay  1  ward's  forge  on  their  way  through  Henley 
town,  the  smith,  at  work  with  his  men,  Robert 
Noris  and  William  Assheley,  bluntly  remarked, 
"  They  go  offering  their  souls  to  the  devil."  He 
also  talked  to  his  men  about  the  Gospel  of  Nico- 
demus,  an  apocryphal  book  which  Wycliffe  had 
translated.  From  hearing  it  read  (for  he  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  able  to  read  or  write)  he 
had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  "  the  sacrament 
of  baptism  at  the  font  was  only  a  token  and 
a  sign,"  and  "  that  no  man  ought  to  be  baptised 
till  he  came  to  old  age."  Other  charges  were 
based  on  random  utterances  of  his  at  different 
times,  coarse  and  blasphemous  enough,  but 
showing  the  natural  revolt  of  a  vigorous  but 
untaught  mind  against  the  teachings  of  Rome. 
The  blood  of  Hales,  he  said,  was  that  of  a  dog 
or  a  duck,  and  the  miracle  of  its  liquefaction  was 
visible,  not  as  the  monks  taught  to  the  pure  in 
heart,  but  to  those  who  paid  a  sufficient  offering. 
Of  the  Mass,  he  had  spoken  in  terms  which  will 
hardly  bear  transcription,  and  had  said,  "  I  can 
make  as  good  a  sacrament  myself  between  two 
irons  ;  for  a  priest  neither  can  nor  may  make  God 
that  made  him."  Confession,  he  said,  was  only 
maintained  by  the  priests  for  purposes  of  immo- 
rality. His  audacious  tongue  had  spared  neither 
the  Pope  nor  the  King.  Of  the  former  he  had 
said  that  "  he  would  he  deeper  in  hell  than 
Lucifer;"  and  he  declared  that  the  King  also 
would  go  to  hell   "  because  of  his  great  support- 


72  THE    LOLLARDS 

ation  of  the  Church."  But  this  charge  was  passed 
over  in  silence  by  the  Bishop,  with  the  consent 
of  the  Lord  Chancellor,  the  Bishop  of  Exeter. 
Probably  this  was  to  prevent  the  intervention  of 
a  secular  court;  but  whatever  the  motive,  it  was 
an  act  of  mercy  on  which  Aylward  might  well 
congratulate  himself,  since  it  probably  saved  him 
from  being  hung,  drawn,  and  quartered  as  a 
traitor. 

Aylward  had  learned  his  views,  he  said,  from 
one  named  "  Patryk."  He  had  been  in  trouble 
some  years  before  for  sorcery — in  other  words  for 
professing  to  cure  children  of  the  whooping-cough 
by  dipping  his  second  finger  into  water  into  which 
a  red-hot  steelyard  had  been  plunged,  and  bidding 
the  parents  say  five  Paternosters  and  five  Ave 
Marias.  But  the  charges  against  him  now  were 
much  more  serious.  They  w^ere  read  over  to 
him,  and  as  he  pleaded  "  Guilty  "  to  each  in 
turn,  the  word  fatetur  (he  confesses)  was  entered 
against  it.  Aylward  had  evidently  nothing  of  the 
martyr  spirit,  and  readily  abjured  his  reckless 
utterances,  which  seem  to  have  been  prompted 
more  by  a  love  of  shocking  his  neighbours  than 
by  any  higher  motives.  Having  thus  abjured, 
he  received  absolution,  but  would  no  doubt  have 
to  do  penance.  It  is  a  pitiful  picture — priestly 
intolerance  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other 
blind,  ignorant  fanaticism  of  that  extreme  type 
which  is  generally  fostered  by  persecution.  But 
a  change  was  at  hand.  More  than  one  of  those 
who  were  charged  with  heresy   in   the  days  of 


UNDER    THE    WHITE    ROSE         73 

Henry  VII.  and  VIII.  fixed  the  latter  part  of 
the  reign  of  Edward  IV.  as  the  period  of  their 
conversion  to  Lollard  views.  And  we  shall  soon 
see  indications  that  Lollard  teachers  were  prob- 
ably at  work  in  the  Chiltern  country  at  this  time, 
though  all  record  of  their  labours  has  perished. 


CHAPTEK    VIII 

THE    REVIVAL    OF    LOLLARDY 

When  Henry  VII.  took  the  crown  of  the  usurper 
Kichard  from  the  hawthorn-bush  of  Bosworth 
Field  in  1485,  and  when  he  afterwards  ended  the 
strife  of  the  Roses  by  marrying  the  Princess 
EHzabeth,  he  seems  to  have  resolved  not  only 
to  unite  the  two  Houses  of  York  and  Lancaster, 
but  to  combine  their  characteristic  policies — the 
personal  rule  of  Edward  IV.  with  the  rigid 
churchmanship  of  the  Lancastrian  Kings. 

At  the  very  beginning  of  his  reign,  cases  of 
"  heresy  "  are  recorded  at  London  and  Coventry. 
Lollard  doctrines,  too,  had  once  more  found  their 
way  into  Oxford.  In  1491,  Bishop  Russell  of 
Lincoln,  visiting  that  city,  declared  himself 
"  harassed  and  fatigued  "  with  the  multitude  of 
heretics  he  found  there.  He  betook  himself  to 
his  episcopal  seat  at  Wooburn,  mentioned  in  the 
last  chapter ;  and  there  he  made  a  copy  of  a 
work  called  the  Doctrinalc,  by  Thomas  Netter 
/of  Walden,  which  he  considered  would  be  of 
service  to  his  successors  in  dealing  with  heretics. 
The  MS.  (according  to  Dr.  Churton's  Founders 
of  Brasenose  p.  134)  is  preserved  in  the  library 

74 


THE    EEVIVAL    OF    LOLLAEDY      75 

of  University  College ;  it  bears  an  autograph 
injunction  for  its  perpetual  preservation  in  the 
registry  of  Lincoln,  with  a  curse  on  any  one 
defacing  this  injunction,  which  is  dated  "  Woo- 
burn,  on  the  Feast  of  the  Epiphany,  1491  "  (1492 
of  our  present  reckoning). 

About  eight  miles  from  Wooburn,  in  another 
lovely  valley  among  the  beech-crowned  slopes  of 
the  Chilterns,  lies  the  little  town  of  Amersham, 
already  more  than  once  referred  to.  In  Foxe's 
account  of  Thomas  Man,  burned  in  Smithfield 
in  1518,  he  mentions  (iv.  213)  that  Man,  after 
many  wanderings,  came  to  Newbury  from  Wind- 
sor Forest,  and  was  there  told  of  the  existence 
of  a  number  of  Lollards  at  Amersham.  Thither 
he  went  accordingly,  and  found  "  a  godly  and 
a  great  company,"  who  had  continued  in  their 
belief  for  twenty-three  years.  This  would  take 
us  back  to  1495  at  the  latest.  Foxe  did  not  know 
that,  as  we  have  seen  was  the  case,  Lollard  prin- 
ciples were  strong  in  and  around  Amersham  in 
1414,  in  1428,  and  again  in  1462.  No  wonder 
that  the  town  should  have  become  a  stronghold 
of  Lollard  principles — "  the  rendezvous  of  God's 
children  in  those  days,"  as  Fuller  calls  it. 

Everything  seems  to  point  to  a  great  revival 
of  Lollard  doctrine  about  this  time  (1495).  The 
date  itself  is  suggestive.  Henry  VII.  had  been 
ten  years  on  the  throne.  The  Papal  Court  had 
sunk  to  its  lowest  depth  of  degradation  in  the 
Borgia  Pope,  Alexander  VI.  Savonarola  was  at 
the  zenith  of  his  influence  at  Florence.     Luther 


6 


76  THE    LOLLAEDS 

was  a  singing  boy  in  the  streets  of  Eisnach. 
Three  years  before,  two  great  events  had  stirred 
the  heart  of  Europe  with  hopes  unknown  to  it 
for  ages.  The  constant  stealthy  advance  of 
Mohammedanism,  which  had  blasted  three-fourths 
of  Christendom,  had  at  last  met  with  a  check 
in  the  capture  of  Granada  ;  and  in  the  same  year 
the  daring  of  Christopher  Columbus  had  revealed 
the  New  World  of  America.  The  discovery  of 
printing  had  marvellously  aided  the  spread  of 
knowledge;  and  now  the  "New  Learning," 
brought  into  Italy  by  Grecian  refugees  after  the 
taking  of  Constantinople  by  the  Turks,  had 
reached  the  shores  of  England.  Two  years  later 
Colet  commenced  his  New  Testament  lectures  at 
Oxford,  and  the  long  lethargy  which  had  paralysed 
the  University  since  the  time  of  Courtenay  began 
at  last  to  be  broken. 

John  Colet  was  of  an  old  Buckinghamshire 
family.  Lipscombe  (ii.  431)  says  that  he  was 
born  at  Wendover  ;  but  most  authorities  give  Lon- 
don as  the  place  of  his  birth.  He  certainly  owned 
extensive  landed  property  in  Wendover  and  the 
adjoining  parishes,  which  he  bequeathed  to  St. 
Paul's  School.  Here  again  we  find  ourselves  just 
on  the  borders  of  the  old  Lollard  district ;  and  it 
is  impossible  to  say  what  influences  may 
have  affected  him  from  this  fact.  Erasmus 
hints  that  Colet  had  made  himself  familiar 
with  Wycliffe's  writings  ;  and  though  he 
calls  the  Lollards  "  men  mad  with  strange  folly," 
Colet  was  not  the  first  or  the  last  ecclesiastic  who 


THE    EEVIVAL    OF    LOLLARDY      77 

was  far  nearer  than  he  suspected  in  spiritual  affin- 
ity to  despised  sectaries  whose  real  standpoint  he 
scarcely   understood. 

Colet's  simplicity  of  life,  his  Scriptural  teaching, 
and  his  manly  protests  against  the  evils  of  the 
day,  would  naturally  commend  him  to  the  Lol- 
lards ;  and  hence  we  can  quite  believe  Foxe  when 
he  tells  us  (iv.  246)  that  "  these  '  known  men  ' 
about  Buckinghamshire  had  a  great  mind  to  re- 
sort to  his  sermons  ' '  after  he  was  apponted  Dean 
of  St.  Paul's  (1505).  His  friend  and  fellow- 
reformer  Grocyn,  it  may  be  noted  in  passing,  at 
one  time  had  been  rector  of  a  Buckinghamshire 
parish,  Newton  Longville. 

"  Heretics  "  were  being  brought  to  light  with 
increasing  frequency  over  various  parts  of  the 
south  of  England.  In  1494  the  first  English 
female  martyr,  Joan  Boughton,  was  burned  in 
Smithfield.  A  priest  was  burned  at  Canterbury 
in  1498,  and  another  victim  suffered  at  Norwich 
in  1500.  In  the  diocese  of  Salisbury,  numerous 
persons  were  compelled  to  do  penance  in  various 
part-s  of  Berkshire  (1499).  Their  confessions, 
preserved  in  the  Diocesan  Eegister,  are  mostly  of 
the  ordinary  Lollard  type.  Eight  cases  are  re- 
corded at  Beading,  six  in  and  around  Faringdon, 
five  in  Wantage  and  the  neighbourhood,  and  one 
at  Hungerford.  We  shall  find  presently  that 
there  was  constant  communication  between  these 
Berkshire  Lollards  and  their  brethren  across  the 
Thames  in  Bucks. 


CHAPTEE  IX 

THREE  LOLLARD  TEACHERS  AND  THEIR  FATE 

As  we  have  now  to  a  large  extent  to  follow  the 
guidance  of  John  Foxe,  it  will  be  necessary  to  say 
a  few  words  on  the  credibility  of  that  author,  who 
has  been  so  depreciated  in  modern  days  that  one 
is  almost  afraid  to  mention  him — 

Lest  so  despised  a  name  should  move  a  sneer. 

It  may  be  freely  conceded  that  Foxe  is  in  many 
respects  an  unreliable  writer,  ever  ready  to  put 
the  blackest  construction  on  the  actions  of  theo- 
logical opponents,  and  to  gloss  over  facts  which 
tell  against  his  own  side  ;  but  he  lived  in  an  age 
which  did  not  understand  the  meaning  of  critical 
fairness.  It  must  also  be  admitted  that  his  work 
absolutely  swarms  with  blunders,  especially  as  to 
dates ;  but  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the 
greater  part  of  it  was  written  on  the  Continent, 
in  the  altogether  inadequate  space,  for  a  work  of 
such  extent,  in  fourteen  months ;  and  while  Foxe 
corrected  some  of  his  more  glaring  errors  in  subse- 
quent editions,  the  traces  of  its  original  huiTy  of 
compilation  still  remain  on  the  book. 

No  book  has  had  stranger  fortunes  than  the 
78 


THREE  LOLLARD  TEACHERS   79 

Acts  and  Monuments.  Christened  as  soon  as  it 
appeared  by  a  name  (the  "Book  of  Martyrs") 
which  its  author  never  gave  it,  and  against  which 
he  protested  again  and  again  as  misrepresenting 
its  scope,  it  has  had  its  rightful  title  entirely 
su^pplanted  by  a  nickname.  Received  at  first  with 
extravagant  admiration,  ordered  to  be  set  up  in 
every  parish  church,  and  in  the  common  halls  of 
archbishops,  bishops,  deans,  and  heads  of  col- 
leges ;  approved  by  the  great  Elizabethan  prelates 
(one  of  whom,  Archbishop  Grindal,  furnished 
Foxe  with  many  of  his  details) ;  quoted  with 
admiration  by  men  like  Camden,  Strype,  Fuller, 
and  Burnet ;  it  has  come  in  our  own  day  to  be  as 
much  undervalued  as  it  was  overvalued  then.  For 
although  the  searching  light  of  criticism  has  ex- 
posed Foxe's  prejudices  and  inaccuracies,  some  of 
the  attacks  upon  him  have  been  so  grossly  unfair, 
and  themselves  so  absolutely  uncritical,  as  to  make 
one  wonder  whether,  after  all,  the  great  offence 
of  the  "  lying  Foxe,"  in  the  eyes  of  some  modern 
partisans,  is  not  that  he  tella  more  truth  than  is 
convenient  for  them.  Froude's  testimony  is 
worth  quoting:  "I  trust  Foxe  where  he  pro- 
duces documentary  evidence,  because  I  have  in- 
variably proved  his  documents  accurate."  And 
a  careful  reader  of  the  elaborate  notes  in  Pratt 
and  Stoughton's  edition  will  observe  that  such 
departures  from  his  original  documents  as  do  occur 
are  almost  always  those  which  might  arise  either 
from  hasty  transcription  or  from  ignorance  of 
technical  terms. 


80  THE    LOLLAEDS 

Foxe's  references  to  Buckinghamshire  occur  for 
the  first  time  in  his  second  edition  (1570).  He 
does  not  appear  to  have  had  any  close  personal 
acquaintance  with  the  county.  Some  local  writers 
have  suggested  that  the  John  Fox  who  was  Vicar 
of  Stewkley  in  1545,  may  have  been  the  same  as 
the  martyrologist.  This,  however,  seems  impos- 
sible ;  for  in  that  year  Foxe  left  Oxford,  under 
suspicion  of  heresy,  and  became  a  tutor  at  Charle- 
cote  Park,  Warwickshire,  whence,  a  year  later, 
he  removed  to  Coventry. 

Foxe  tells  us  (iv.  123)  how,  in  the  year  1506, 
the  Amersham  Lollards  attracted  the  attention  of 
Bishop  William  Smith  (the  successor  of  Russell  in 
the  see  of  Lincoln,  and  founder  of  Brasenose  Col- 
lege, Oxford),  who  instituted  proceedings  against 
them.  Amersham,  or  Agmondesham  as  it  was 
then  called,  is  now  one  of  the  quietest  and 
sloepiest  of  towns,  until  recently  seven  miles  from 
a  railway  station.  But  it  was  then  of  greater 
relative  importance.  Being  twenty-six  miles  from 
London  on  an  important  road,  it  would  be  a 
favourite  halting-place  for  wayfarers,  and  news 
from  the  metropolis  would  reach  it  quickly.  Thus 
the  Lollards  there  w^ould  soon  get  to  know  of  the 
preaching  of  Colet.  We  read  (Foxe,  iv.  228)  how 
"Thomas  Grove,  of  London,  butcher,  William 
Glasbroke,  of  Harrow-on-the-Hill,  Christopher 
Glasbroke,  of  London,  and  William  Tilseworth,  of 
London,  goldsmith  (apprentice  sometime  to  John 
Barret)  used  to  resort  and  confer  together  of 
matters  of  religion  in  the  house  of  Thomas  Man, 


THEEE  LOLLAED  TEACHEES   81 

of  Araersham,"  about  this  time.  These  visitors 
from  London  would  be  glad  of  a  secluded  spot  in 
which  to  confer  with  their  co-religionists  ;  and 
they  would  be  likely  to  follow  the  example  of 
Thomas  Geffrey,  of  Uxbridge,  who  "  caused  John 
Butler  divers  Sundays  to  go  to  London  to  hear 
Dr.  Colet"    (iv.   23oV 

These  Lollards  were  some  of  them  men  of 
substance.  Of  Thomas  Grove,  we  read  (iv.  227) 
that  he  was  able  to  give  3G2O,  a  large  sum  for 
those  days,  to  Dr.  Wilcocks,  Vicar-General  of 
the  diocese  of  London,  in  order  to  be  excused 
from  an  open  penance.  He  and  his  wife  Joan 
seem  afterwards  to  have  lived  at  Amersham  (iv. 
233)  ;  and  the  surname  is  still  familiar  in  the  dis- 
trict. As  to  Wilham  Tilseworth,  the  goldsmith, 
it  is  curious  to  notice,  all  through  the  history  of 
the  Lollards,  how  many  goldsmiths  belonged  to 
the  body  ;  and  the  goldsmith  in  those  days  was 
an  important  personage,  for  he  frequently  acted 
as  a  banker.  His  master,  John  Barret,  knew^  the 
Epistle  of  James  by  heart,  and  repeated  it  on  one 
occasion  before  his  wife  Joan,  and  her  maid  Jude, 
and  a  visitor,  John  Scrivener,  to  whom  Mistress 
Barret  also  lent  the  Gospels  of  Matthew  and 
Mark,  which  he  surrendered  to  Bishop  Smith 
(iv.  228). 

The  Amersham  Lollards  had  at  this  time  three 
"principal  readers  or  instructors" — William 
Tylsworth,  or  Tilseworth  (Tylesley  in  the  edition 
of  1570),  Eobert  Cosin,  and  Thomas  Chase. 

William    Tylsworth    was    very    possibly     the 


82  THE    LOLLARDS 

father  of  the  young  man  who  had  been  apprenticed 
to  the  pious  goldsmith  Barret.  He  had  called  the 
images  of  the  saints  "  stocks  and  stones  and  dead 
things"  (iv.  221).  He  was  sentenced  to  be  burned, 
and  the  sentence  was  carried  out  in  a  field  called 
Stanley's  Close,  still  pointed  out  on  a  slope  north 
of  the  town.  About  sixty  Lollards,  the  names  of 
over  twenty  of  whom  are  given  by  Foxe  (iv.  123) 
were  "  put  to  bear  faggots  for  their  penance  "  at 
his  burning.  We  can  picture  them  climbing  the 
hill  in  slow  and  sad  procession,  while  numbers 
of  the  townspeople  and  even  of  their  children 
followed  with  faggots  and  sticks  in  order  to  merit 
the  forty  days'  indulgence  which  had  been  pro- 
mised to  all  who  should  assist  at  the  burning  of 
the  heretic  (iv.  581).  By  a  refinement  of  cruelty 
when  the  faggots  had  been  piled  around  the  stake, 
his  only  daughter,  Joan  Clark,  "  a  faithful 
w^oman,"  was  compelled  to  set  fire  to  them  with 
her  own  hands,  while  her  husband  John  Clark 
was  one  of  the  faggot-bearers.  Thus  Tyls- 
worth  met  his  end  with  every  aggravation  of 
physical  and  mental  agony,  and  of  apparent  utter 
failure  in  his  work  ;  but  in  his  case,  as  in  that  of 
countless  others,  the  saying  was  to  be  verified  : 
"The  blood  of  the  martyrs  is  the  seed  of  the 
Church." 

A  curious  variation  from  Foxe's  account  occurs 
in  one  of  the  numerous  "Books  of  Martyrs" 
based  on  his  work,  which  was  compiled  early  in 
the  nineteenth  century  by  a  Dr.  Henry  Moore. 
We  there  read  as  follows  : — "  In  1506,  Wilham 


THREE  LOLLAED  TEACHERS   83 

Tilfery,  a  pious  man,  was  burnt  alive  at  Amer- 
sham,  in  a  close  called  Stony-prat."  This  evi- 
dently refers  to  the  case  of  Tylsworth,  and  it  is 
curious  that  the  name  of  Stony  Prat  is  still  given 
to  a  field  lying  to  the  north  of  Amersham.  The 
local  traditions,  however,  gather  neither  around 
this  nor  around  Stanleys,  but  around  a  field  called 
Ruckles,  or  Martyr  Field,  which  lies  between  the 
two,  not  far  from  the  railway  station.  It  is  pos- 
sible that  the  present  enclosures  did  not  then  exist, 
so  that  Ruckles  would  form  part  of  Stanleys. 
Beyond  Ruckles  to  the  westward  lies  the  ' '  Tenter 
Field  "  before  alluded  to,  and  bej^ond  this  again, 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Chesham  road,  is  Stony 
Prat.  As  the  traveller  approaches  Amersham  from 
the  south,  and  looks  across  the  valley  in  which  the 
quaint  old  town  nestles,  little  changed  in  extent 
and  appearance,  comparatively  speaking,  by  the 
four  centuries  which  have  elapsed,  he  sees  a  hilly 
field  (Ruckles)  under  the  beech-woods  on  the  oppo- 
site slope,  and  in  it  a  shght  depression  where,  it 
used  to  be  said,  the  corn  would  never  grow,  but 
always  faded  away.  Some  years  ago  as  I  learned 
from  the  late  Mr.  E.  West,  so  well  and  honourably 
known  in  the  town,  the  Rev.  Joseph  Burton,  a 
retired  West  Indian  missionary,  who  was  then 
pastor  of  the  Lower  Baptist  Chapel  at  Amersham, 
employed  a  labouring  man  named  Belch  to  dig 
up  the  soil,  and  found  that  an  old  chalk-pit  had 
been  filled  up  with  large  flints,  thus  accounting 
for  the  barrenness  of  the  site.  Belch  died  shortly 
after,  and   not   a  few   looked  on   his  death   as  a 


84  THE    LOLLARDS 

visitation  of  God  !  A  few  years  later,  a  local 
solieitor,  the  late  Mr.  Thomas  Marshall,  repeated 
the  experiment,  and  confirmed  the  conclusion 
arrived  at  by  the  Baptist  minister.  This  time  the 
flints  were  partly  removed,  and  since  then  the 
ground  has  been  less  barren,  but  it  still  shows  a 
difference  from  the  surrounding  soil  in  a  dry 
season.  The  spot  was  probably  chosen  for  the 
place  of  execution  as  a  piece  of  waste  ground, 
visible  from  all  parts  of  the  town;  and  its  con- 
spicuous barrenness  has  preserved  the  memory 
of  the  site  to  successive  generations. 

Several  members  of  the  Tylsworth  family  are 
mentioned  as  suspected  of  heresy  a  few  years 
later.  I  have  not  traced  the  name  in  the  district, 
though  "  Tyldesley  "  occurs  on  a  monument  in 
Burnham  Church.  The  name  of  Clark,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  common  in  the  county,  and  was 
borne  by  an  old  Bucks  family  of  Quakers. 

In  the  same  week  as  Tylsworth  suffered,  his 
fellow-worker,  Eobert  Cosin,  was  burned  at 
Buckingham.  He  was  a  miller,  living  at  Missen- 
den,  and  was  familiarly  known  as  "  Father 
Robert."  Cosin  appears  to  have  been  condemned 
for  dissuading  his  neighbours  from  pilgrimages 
and  the  worship  of  saints.  At  his  burning 
more  than  twenty  persons  were  compelled 
to  bear  faggots  as  a  penance.  Dr.  Moore, 
in  the  work  just  now  alluded  to,  states, 
on  what  authority  does  not  appear,  that  Cosin, 
or  Roberts  as  he  calls  him,  "  embraced  the 
faggots,   and   rejoiced  that   God   had   accounted 


THEEE  LOLLAED  TEACHERS   85 

him  worthy  to  die  tor  the  truth  of  the  Gospel." 
The  third  Lollard  leader  in  the  district  at  this 
time  was  Thomas  Chase.  Here  again  we  come 
upon  a  name  familiar  in  the  district.  The  Chases, 
or  one  branch  of  them,  lived  for  generations  at 
the  quaint  old  manor-house  of  Hundridge,  near 
Chesham,  and  were  connected  with  the  Lower 
Baptist  Chapel  in  that  town.  This  branch  have 
now  removed  to  the  States,  and  their  American 
home  is,  I  am  told,  built  on  the  plan,  and  bears 
the  name  of  Hundridge,  while  some  of  them  visit 
the  Buckinghamshire  homestead  from  time  to 
time. 

Thomas  Chase  appears  to  have  been  of  a  some- 
what more  timid  disposition  than  Tylsworth  and 
Cosin.  He  had  exhorted  one  of  the  persons  to 
whom  he  taught  passages  of  Scripture,  "  to  keep 
the  things  he  spake  of  as  secret  in  his  stomach 
as  a  man  would  keep  a  thief  in  prison  "  (iv.  225). 
Like  Barret  the  goldsmith,  he  could  recite  the 
Epistle  of  James,  and  also  part  at  least  of  the 
Gospel  of  Luke  (iv.  224).  He  seems  to  have 
yielded  before  the  first  onslaught  of  persecution, 
and  bore  a  faggot  at  Tylsworth's  martyrdom.  But 
a  little  later  he  was  taken  from  Amersham  to 
Wooburn,  and  examined  before  Bishop  Smith. 
He  now  atoned  for  his  previous  weakness  by  a 
courageous  confession,  and  was  imprisoned  in  the 
"  Little  Ease  "  adjoining  the  Bishop's  palace  at 
Wooburn,  a  prison  in  which  it  was  impossible  for 
him  to  stand  upright,  or  to  lie  down  with  comfort ; 
although  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  ghastly  picture 


86  THE    LOLLAEDS 

of  the  Wooburn  dungeon  drawn  by  Miss  Holt  in 
her  Robin  Trcmayne  does  not  quite  correspond 
with  the  actual  fact.  "Little  Ease"  was  the 
name  of  a  well-known  cell  in  the  Tower  of  Lon- 
don, and  was  applied  to  others  in  various  parts 
of  the  country.  Foxe  states  that  Cha.se  was  loaded 
with  "  chains,  gyves,  manacles,  and  irons," 
beaten^  half  starved,  and  daily  harassed  with 
threats  and  upbraidings  by  the  Bishop's  chaplains. 
At  last,  finding  that  he  would  not  recant,  his 
persecutors  tortured  him  more  severely  than  ever, 
and  finally  strangled  him.  The  woman  who 
attended  to  the  prisoner  was  within  earshot,  and 
heard  his  groans,  and  his  dying  cry,  "  Lord  Jesus, 
receive  my  spirit ! "  It  does  not  appear  that  his 
death  had  been  intended ;  and  his  tormentors 
were  "  at  their  wits'  end  "  for  means  to  conceal 
their  cruelty.  They  gave  out  that  Chase  had 
hanged  himself  in  prison — a  physical  impossi- 
bility, considering  the  height  of  the  cell,  and  the 
chains  with  which  he  was  loaded.  However,  he 
was  buried  as  a  suicide  on  the  road  from  Wooburn 
to  Little  Marlow,  in  the  wood  called  Norland 
(now  Northern)  Wood. 

Such  is  Foxe's  account,  stripped  of  his  usual 
violent  epithets  of  "  stinging  vipers,"  "  bloody 
butchers,"  etc.,  applied  to  Chase's  persecutors.  A 
local  writer,  a  few  years  ago,  expressed  his  opinion 
that  Chase  really  hanged  himself,  and  that  the 
"  martyr-on-the-brain-affected  Foxe  "  supplied 
"  the  agony  accompaniment  "  out  of  his  fertile 
imagination.     This  may  be  a  matter  of  opinion, 


THREE  LOLLAKD  TEACHERS   87 

but  when  the  writer  in  question  goes  on  to  say 
(quoting  Lysons'  Buckinghamshire ,  but  not  men- 
tioning his  authority)  that  the  Bishop  is  ' '  ably 
defended  by  Dr.  Churton,  of  Brasenose,  and  by 
Fuller  in  his  Church  History,"  he  gives  a  striking 
example  of  the  pitfalls  in  the  way  of  a  superficial 
inquiry,  for  one  of  the  authorities  referred  to 
accepts  Foxe's  account  implicitly  ;  and  the  other 
does  so  hesitatingly,  but  seeks  to  exonerate  the 
Bishop,  whom  Foxe  never  accused  of  being  con- 
cerned in  Chase's  death.  Thp  matter  is  worth 
looking  at  more  closely,  as  an  example  of  the 
facile  way  in  which  Foxe  is  sometimes  discredited 
on  no  evidence  at  all. 

Fuller  (Church  History,  book  v.,  p.  164),  after 
speaking  favourably  of  Smith's  apparent  cle- 
mency in  substituting  branding  for  burning  in 
certain  cases,  goes  on  to  say  : — 

"They  who  desire  further  information  of  the 
number  and  names  of  such  as  suffered  about  this 
time  may  repair  to  the  Acts  and  Monuments  of 
Mr.  Foxe;  only  Thomas  Chase,  of  Amersham, 
must  not  be  here  omitted,  being  barbarously 
butchered  by  bloudy  hands  in  the  Prison  of 
Wooburne  ;  who,  to  cover  their  cruelty,  gave  it 
out  that  he  had  hanged  himself,  and  in  colour 
thereof,  caused  his  body  to  be  buried  by  the  high- 
way's side,  where  a  stake,  knock't  into  the  grave, 
is  the  monument  generally  erected  for  Felons  de 
sc.  '  Fear  not  those  '  (saith  our  Saviour)  '  who 
kill  the  body,  and  afterward  have  no  more  that 
they  can  do.'     But  these  men's  malice  endea- 


88  THE    LOLLAEDS 

voured  to  do  more,  having  killed  his  body,  to 
murder  his  memory  with  slanderous  reports, 
although  all  in  vain ;  for  the  prison  itself  did 
plead  for  the  innocence  of  the  prisoner  herein, 
being  a  place  so  low  and  little  that  he  could  not 
stand  upright.  Besides,  the  woman  that  saw  his 
dead  body  (a  most  competent  witness  in  this  case) 
declared  that  he  was  so  loaden  with  manicles  and 
irons  that  he  could  not  well  move  hand  or  foot. 
But  we  leave  the  full  discussing  and  final  deciding 
to  Him  who  makes  inquisition  for  bloud,  at  that 
day  when  such  things  as  have  been  done  in  secret 
shall  be  made  manifest." 

Turning  now  to  Dr.  Churton's  Founders  of 
Brasenose  (pp.  137 — 140),  we  find  him  simply 
pointing  out  that  Foxe  cites  no  documents  as  to 
the  deaths  of  Chase  and  Tylsworth,  that  the 
accounts  he  received  were  probably  coloured  and 
exaggerated  with  the  lapse  of  time,  and  that  Foxe 
himself  elsewhere  admits  the  comparative  leniency 
of  Smith,  as  to  whom  Churton  avows  his  behef 
that  "although  the  sentence  might  be  his" 
(probably  referring  to  Tylsworth's  case)  "  the 
studied  barbarity  which  disgraced  the  execution 
was  the  result  of  baser  minds,  without  his  sug- 
gestion or  concurrence." 

A  small  recess  or  cell  in  the  cellarage  of  Woo- 
burn  House  (which  occupies  nearly  the  site  of 
the  Bishop's  palace)  is  pointed  out  as  the 
"  Lollards'  Chamber  "  or  "  Little  Ease."  But 
it  does  not  at  all  correspond  with  Foxe's  descrip- 
tion ;  and  I  beheve  that  a  more  Ukely  spot  used 


THREE  LOLLAED  TEACHERS   89 

to  be  shown  in  some  outbuildings  now  pulled 
down.  An  aged  lady  once  told  me  of  a  story  she 
had  heard  from  her  mother  when  living  at  Woo- 
burn  as  a  child,  about  certain  martyrs  who  were 
buried  in  the  ground  up  to  their  necks  in  Northern 
Woods,  and  left  to  starve — perhaps  a  distorted 
version  of  the  story  of  Chase. 


CHAPTER   X 

THE    GREAT     ABJURATION 

We  have  seen  that  about  eighty  persons  abjurerl 
and  did  penance  at  the  burning  of  Tylsworth  and 
Cosin.  This  wholesale  abjuration  of  the  Lollards 
seems  to  have  been  that  long  remembered  in  the 
district  as  Magna  Abjuratio,  "  the  Great  Abjura- 
tion," and  took  place  in  1507  (iv.  214).  Another 
followed  in  1511,  and  to  this  the  name  is  applied 
in  a  marginal  note,  only  found  in  some  editions 
of  Foxe  ;  but  most  of  the  passages  seem  evidently 
to  refer  to  the  earlier  date. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  it  is  somewhat  dis- 
appointing, all  through  the  history  of  the  Lollards, 
to  notice  the  large  proportion  of  abjurations. 
Many  of  those  who  suffered  during  the  fifteenth 
and  sixteenth  centuries  were  condemned  for 
"relapse,"  i.e.,  continuing  in  their  views  after 
having  once  formally  abjured.  But  it  is  probable 
that  some  of  the  more  stedfast  souls  were  con- 
demned to  imprisonment,  the  protracted  sufferings 
of  which  may  have  been  harder  to  bear  than  a 
fiery  martyrdom.  Nor  is  it  easy  for  us  to  estimate 
the  courage  required  to  stand  against  the  force 
90 


THE    GREAT    ABJURATION  91 

of  an  almost  unchallenged  authority.  To  quote 
Coleridge's  lines  on  the  recantation  of  Berenga- 
rius  : — 

Ye  who,  secure  'mid  trophies  not  your  own, 
Judge  him   who   won  them   when  he   stood 

alone, 
And  proudly  talk  oi  recreant  Berengare, 
O  first  the  age,  and  then  the  man  compare  ! 
That  age  how  dark  !    congenial  minds  how 

rare  ! 
No  host  of  friends  with  kindred  zeal  did  burn  ! 
No  throbbing  hearts  awaited  his  return  ! 
Prostrate  alike  when  prince  and  peasant  fell, 
He  only,   disenchanted  from  the   spell, 
Like  the  weak  worm  that  gems  the  starless 

night. 
Moved  in  the  scanty  circlet  of  his  light ; 
And  was  it  strange  if  he  withdrew  the  ray 
That  did  but  guide  the  night-birds  to  their 

prey? 

The  Marian  martyrs  were  sustained  by  the  con- 
sci(jusness  that  a  widespread  and  influential 
public  opinion,  which  often  manifested  itself  in 
active  sympathy,  was  on  their  side.  The  "known 
men  "  of  Amersham  had  no  such  support,  and 
must  often  have  doubted  whether,  after  all,  they, 
a  few  unlettered  people,  could  be  right  in  holding 
a  belief  which  seemed  contrary  to  that  of  all  the 
wise  and  learned  of  the  land. 

The  writer  of  an   article   in  the   Spectator  of 


92  THE    LOLLARDS 

Dec.  17th,  1892,  says  of  similar  recantations, 
recorded  in  diocesan  registers  : — 

"  We  cannot  help  wondering  in  what  spirit 
most  of  these  recantations  were  made.  Some- 
times the  profession  of  future  orthodoxy  may  have 
been  genuine.  A  man  may  have  been  startled 
to  find  that  opinions  he  had  held  were  heretical, 
and  when  the  bishop  bade  him  recant 

'  Lest  thou  fleet 
From  my   first   to  God's   second   death,' 

he  may  have  dreaded  the  spiritual  penalty  no 
less  than  the  temporal  one.  Yet  it  is  difficult  to 
believe  in  the  good  faith  of  men  who  for  years 
had  belonged  to  a  secret  sect,  who  had  scoffed 
at  Church  ordinances  and  avoided  confession,  but 
who  declare  in  the  most  innocent  way  that  now 
they  understand  their  opinions  to  be  false,  and 

accordingly  forsake  them The  spirit 

of  martyrs  was  not  to  be  expected  from  these 
men,  who  had  been  trained  for  years  to  shelter 
themselves  under  an  outward  conformity  .... 
For  the  time  all  aggressiveness  and  open  prosely- 
tism  had  died  out  among  the  reformers,  and  it 
needed  a  new  impulse  to  make  them  brave  enough 
to  bear  public  witness  to  the  truth  that  they  prized 
for  themselves." 

The  Buckinghamshire  Lollards  did  not  escape 
with  merely  bearing  faggots  at  the  martyrdoms 
of  Tylsworth  and  Cosin.  Some  of  them  had  to 
do  public  penance  in  the  market-places  of  Ayles- 
bury and  other  towns.     They  were  compelled  to 


THE    GREAT    ABJURATION  93 

wear  badges  of  green  cloth  on  their  sleeves,  as  a 
permanent  mark  of  disgrace.  Some  were 
branded  on  the  cheek.  Fuller's  words  may 
be  quoted  here  (Chnrcli  History,  book  v.,  pp. 
163,  164)  :— 

"  At  the  same  time  sixty  professors,  and  above, 
did  bear  fagots  for  their  penance,  and  were 
enjoyned  to  wear  on  their  right  sleeve,  for  some 
years  after,  a  square  piece  of  cloth,  as  a  disgrace 
to  themselves,  and  a  difference  from  others.  But 
what  is  most  remarkable ,  a  new  punishment  was 
now  found  out — of  branding  them  on  the  cheek. 
The  manner  thus  :  their  necks  were  tied  fast 
to  a  post  with  towels,  and  their  hands  holden  that 
they  might  not  stir ;  and  so  the  hot  iron  was 
put  to  their  cheeks.  It  is  not  certain  whether 
branded  with  L,  for  Lollard,  or  H,  for  Heretick, 
or  whether  it  was  only  a  formless  print  of  iron 
(yet  nevertheless  painful).  This  is  sure,  that 
they  bare  in  their  bodies  the  marks  of  the  Lord 
Jesus.  And  no  doubt  they  had  so  well  learned 
our  Saviour's  precept,  that  rather  than  they  would 
have  revenged  themselves  by  unlawful  means, 
to  them  that  smit  them  on  the  one  cheek  they 
would  have  turned  the  other  also.  Surely  Eccle- 
siastical Constitutions  did  not  reach  thus  far  as 
to  impose  any  corporal  torture  ;  and  whether  there 
be  any  Statute  of  the  Land  that  enjoyns  (not  to 
say  permits)  such  punishments,  let  the  learned 
in  the  Laws  decide.  This  I  am  sure,  if  this  was 
the  first  time  they  fell  into  this  (supposed) 
Heresie,  by  the   law  they   were   onely  to  abjure 


94  THE    LOLLARjDS 

their  errours  ;  and  if  it  were  the  second  time, 
upon  relaps  into  the  same  again,  their  whole 
bodies  were  to  be  burnt.  Except  any  will  say, 
that  such  as  by  these  bloudy  Laws  deserved  death 
were  branded  onely  by  the  favour  of  William 
Smith,  Bishop  of  Lincoln;  and  one  may  have 
charity  to  encline  him  to  this  belief,  when  con- 
sidering the  same  William  (Founder  of  Brasenose 
CoUedg  in  Oxford)  was  generally  a  lover  of 
learning  and  goodness,  and  not  cruelly  disposed 
of  himself." 

This  is  the  passage  already  referred  to  in  the 
previous  chapter.    Fuller  goes  on  : — 

"  However,  some  of  God's  children,  though 
burnt,  did  not  dread  the  fire.  And  Father  Rever, 
alias  Eeive,  though  branded  at  the  time,  did  after- 
wards suffer  at  a  stake ;  so  that  the  brand  at  the 
first  did  but  take  livery  and  seisin  in  his  cheek, 
in  token  that  his  whole  body  should  afterwards 
be  in  the  free  and  full  possession  of  the  fire." 

Another  portion  of  the  penance  enjoined  was 
a  pilgrimage  once  or  twice  a  year  to  certain 
shrines.  Some  of  these  were  in  Buckinghamshire 
— the  shrine  of  Sir  John  Shorne  at  North  Mars- 
ton,  that  of  St.  Rumbold  at  Buckingham,  of  Our 
Lady  at  Missenden,  or  the  famous  crucifix  known 
as  the  Holy  Rood  of  Wendover.  Other  penitents 
had  to  take  longer  journeys,  to  trudge  mile  after 
mile  into  the  low-lying  lands  beyond  the  Ouse, 
till  they  saw  the  towers  of  Lincoln  rise  before 
them  on  the  hill;  or  to  "  Our  Lady  of  Walsing- 
ham,"  the  fashionable  place  of  pilgrimage  at  this 


THE    GREAT    ABJUBATION  95 

date,  where  Queen  Catherine  returned  thanks  a 
few  years  later  for  the  victory  of  Flodden  Field. 
The  little  Norfolk  town,  the  abode  of  "  the  Virgin 
by  the  Sea"  (Virgo  Parathalassia) ,  was  so 
honoured  that  the  country  people,  as  they  looked 
up  at  the  stany  sky,  pointed  at  the  Galaxy  as 
"  the  Walsingham  Way,"  intended  to  guide 
pilgrims  to 

"The  holy  land 
Of  blessed  Walsingham." 

It  derived  its  chief  title  to  reverence  from  a  viai 
containing  a  white  substance,  which  was  shown 
as  the  Virgin's  milk  ! 

These  pilgrimages  were  in  some  cases  enjoined 
for  seven  successive  years,  and  it  would  seem  that 
on  arriving  at  the  shrines  the  penitents  had  again 
publicly  to  bear  faggots  on  their  shoulders.  Robert 
Bartlet,  a  wealthy  farmer,  was  kept  seven  years 
a  prisoner  in  the  College  of  the  Precious  Blood 
at  Ashridge.  "Father  Rogers"  (the  surname 
occurs  long  after  as  that  of  a  prominent  Noncon- 
formist family  at  Amersham)  was  not  only 
branded  on  the  right  cheek,  but  confined  for 
fourteen  weeks  in  the  Bishop's  prison,  probably 
at  Wooburn,  "  where  he  was  so  cruelly  handled 
with  cold,  hunger,  and  irons,  that  after  his  coming 
out  of  the  said  prison,  he  was  so  lame  in  his 
back  that  he  could  never  go  upright  as  long  as 
he  lived." 

Foxe  gives  as  his  vouchers  for  this  persecution 
of    1506-7  an    aged    man    and  woman — William 


96  THE    LOLLARDS 

Littlepage  and  Agnes  Wetherly,  who  were  still 
living  when  he  wrote  in  1570.  Littlepage,  whose 
singular  name  occurs  more  than  once  in  the  list 
of  the  Mayors  of  Wycombe,  and  in  other  local 
records  from  1475  to  1618,  had  borne  a  faggot, 
while  still  a  youth,  at  the  martyrdom  of  Tyls- 
worth,  and  had  been  branded  on  the  cheek.  He 
had  been  apprenticed  to  John  Scrivener,  who  did 
penance  at  the  same  time  (iv.  123,  225).  Agnes 
Wetherly  must  have  been  already  in  middle  life 
at  the  time  of  these  events,  if,  as  Foxe  says,  she 
was  nearly  a  hundred  when  he  wrote.  We  can 
imagine  w^ith  what  reverent  interest  these  vene- 
rable links  wdth  the  past  would  be  regarded  in 
the  "spacious  times  of  great  Elizabeth;"  but 
their  statements  must  evidently  be  received  with 
some  resei've ;  and  in  fact,  the  whole  of  this  part 
of  Foxe's  narrative  is  more  confused  and  contra^ 
dictory  than  we  shall  find  it  later  on.  For 
example,  he  says  (iv.  124),  "After  that"  {i.e., 
the  burning  of  Tylsworth  and  Cosin  in  1506), 
"  by  the  space  of  two  or  three  years,  were  burned 
at  Amersham,  Thomas  Barnard,  a  husbandman, 
and  James  Morden ,  a  labourer ;  they  two  were 
burned  both  at  one  fire."  This  would  make  the 
date  1508  or  1509.  Yet  on  page  245  the  names 
of  Thomas  Bernard  and  James  Morden  are  given 
among  those  who  suffered  for  relapse  in  1521. 
As  both  gave  evidence  in  the  Bishop's  court  in 
the  latter  year,  the  earlier  date  cannot  possibly 
be  the  correct  one.  But  to  make  the  perplexity 
greater  still,  on  turning  to  vol.  v. ,  p.  454,  we  find 


THE    GKEAT    ABJUEATION  97 

the  same  two  men  described  as  suffering  in  the 
persecution  following  the  issue  of  the  Six  Articles 
(1539-1542).  In  the  Kalendar  prefixed  to  vol. 
i.,  too,  1542  is  the  date  given  for  their  death. 
But  Foxe  goes  on  to  say  that  they  were  burned, 
"  the  one  for  teaching  the  Lord's  Prayer  in  Eng- 
lish, and  the  other  for  keeping  the  Epistle  of 
St.  James  translated  into  English."  Now,  as 
Maitland  points  out  in  his  able  but  virulent  criti- 
cisms on  Foxe  in  his  Essays  on  the  Reformation, 
neither  of  these  acts  was  illegal  at  the  time  of 
the  Six  Articles.  We  may  pretty  safely  conclude, 
not,  as  Maitland  seems  to  think,  that  the  whole 
story  w^as  a  myth,  but  that  Bernard  and  Morden 
suffered  in  1521,  when  we  shall  see  their  story 
more  clearly  outlined.  Burnet,  by  the  way,  says 
that  they  suffered  at  Lincoln  ;  but  this  is  probably 
a  hasty  assumption  from  Foxe's  language  in 
vol.  V. 

The  excitement  which  the  persecution  had 
created  in  the  little  town  of  Amersham  gradually 
cooled  dow^n,  but  the  "heresy"  was  far  from 
being  stamped  out.  Thomas  Holmes  was  heard 
to  mutter,  "  The  greatest  cobs  are  yet  behind." 
Roger  Squire,  seeing  one  of  the  informers  who 
had  "  detected  "  the  accused,  bitterly  exclaimed, 
"  This  is  one  of  them  that  make  all  this  business 
in  our  town  with  the  Bishop  ;  I  pray  God  tear 
all  the  bones  of  him."  As  long  after  in  Puritan 
days,  these  informers  became  marked  men. 
People  refused  to  have  dealings  with  them  ;  and 
the  gossips  pointed  out  how  one  and  another  of 


98  THE    LOLLARDS 

them  was  "brought  now  to  beggary."  Others 
said  that  those  who  had  recanted  "  were  good 
men  and  perfect  Christians,  and  simple  folk  who 
could  not  answer  for  themselves,  and  therefore 
were  oppressed  by  power  of  the  Bishop." 

Further  abjurations  would  seem  to  have  taken 
place  in  1508  (iv.  221),  and  again  in  1511  (iv. 
226,  margin).  Thurstan  Littlepage  and  Alexander 
Mastall  are  mentioned  as  leaders  of  the  Amer- 
sham  Lollards  about  this  period  ;  but  Foxe  is 
never  very  strong  on  dates.  Bishop  Smith  showed 
himself  increasingly  averse  to  persecution,  and 
mitigated  the  penance  of  some  of  the  abjurers. 
Instead  of  the  toilsome  journey  of  a  hundred  miles 
to  Lincoln,  they  were  permitted  to  go  to  "  Our 
Lady  of  Missenden,"  five  miles  only  from  Amer- 
sham.  This  indulgence,  however,  was  refused  to 
others.  One  man  was  allowed  to  "  buy  out  his 
penance,  and  carry  his  badge  in  his  purse." 

In  1514  Bishop  Smith  passed  away.  The  news 
was  received  by  the  Lollards  with  much  anxiety, 
for  it  was  doubtful  if  his  successor  would  be  as 
lenient.  Richard  White,  of  Beaconsfield,  wa-s 
heard  to  say,  "  My  Lord  that  is  dead  was  a  good 
man,  and  divers  known  men  were  called  before 
him,  and  he  sent  them  home  again,  bidding  them 
that  they  should  live  among  their  neighbours  as 
good  Christian  men  should  do.  And  now  there 
is  a  new  Bishop,  who  is  called  a  blessed  man; 
and  if  he  be  as  he  is  named,  he  will  not  trouble 
the  servants  of  God,  but  will  let  them  be  in 
quiet." 


THE    GEEAT    ABJURATION  99 

This  "blessed  man"  was  possibly  no  other 
than  Thomas  Wolsey,  afterwards  Cardinal,  w^ho 
held  the  see  of  Lincoln  as  well  as  that  of  York. 
But  Wolsey  was  too  much  engrossed  in  his  am- 
bitious political  schemes  to  trouble  himself  much 
about  the  obscure  heretics  of  Buckinghamshire. 
Besides,  he  only  held  the  see  for  a  few  months, 
and  it  may  have  been  his  successor,  William 
Atwater,  whom  White  referred  to.  In  any  case, 
the  latter's  hope  was  realised  for  the  time.  It 
was  not  till  Atwater  died  at  Wooburn  in  1520, 
and  was  succeeded  by  John  Longland,  who  had 
been  the  King's  confessor,  that  persecution  recom- 
menced in  the  county.  The  bowels  of  Bishop 
Atwater,  by  the  way,  according  to  the  strange 
old  custom  of  the  time,  were  interred  in  Wooburn 
Church,  as  were  those  of  his  predecessors  Russell 
and  Smith,  and  of  his  successor  Longland. 

While  these  events  had  been  taking  place  at 
Amersham,  the  persecution  of  the  Lollards  had 
continued  in  other  parts  of  the  country.  From 
1501  to  1519,  according  to  Foxe,  five  or  six  per- 
sons suffered  in  Smithfield,  seven  at  Coventiy, 
five  in  Kent,  five  in  the  eastern  counties,  two 
at  Salisbury,  one  (if  not  more)  at  Newbury,  and 
one  woman  at  Chipping  Sodbury.  All  these,  it 
must  be  remembered,  were  Lollards;  it  is  not 
till  some  years  later  that  we  come  to  the  first 
Protestant  martyrs  properly  so  called. 

Two  out  of  this  list,  both  burned  in  1518,  call 
for  special  notice,  from  their  connection  with 
Buckinghamshire.       These   were   Thomas   Man, 


100  THE    LOLLAKDS 

burDed    in    Smithfield,    and    Christopher    Shoe- 
maker, who  suffered  at  Newbury. 

Tliomas  Man  had  a  remarkable  and  somewhat 
romantic  career,  though  Foxe  tells  it  in  a  very 
confused  manner  (iv.  208-213).  He  was  cited 
for  heresy  before  Bishop  Smith  at  Oxford  (1511), 
and  after  a  period  of  imprisonment,  he  recanted 
in  St.  Mary's,  did  open  penance,  and  was  kept 
as  a  kind  of  servant,  with  a  faggot  embroidered 
on  his  sleeve,  first  at  Osney  Abbey,  and  then  at 
St.  Frideswide's  Priory.  The  charges  against 
him  included  the  holding  of  some  strange  mysti- 
cal views  about  the  true  sacrament  of  the  altar 
being  in  heaven.  He  had  called  the  priests' 
pulpits  "  lying-stools,"  and  had  said  that  "  holy 
men  of  his  sect  were  the  true  Church  of  God, 
and  the  only  true  priests."  After  a  while  he 
escaped  from  Oxford  into  the  eastern  counties, 
and  for  several  years  led  a  w^andering  life.  It 
is  impossible  to  tell  whether  some  of  the  journeys 
mentioned  were  before  or  after  the  abjuration 
at  Oxford  ;  but  we  trace  him  in  London,  at  Strat- 
ford, Chelmsford,  and  Billericay  in  Essex,  and 
in  Suffolk  and  Norfolk.  Then  he  seems  to  have 
come  westward  again,  after  a  narrow  escape  of 
arrest  at  Colchester.  We  find  him  at  Uxbridge, 
at  Burnham  (Bucks.),  at  Henley-on-Thames,  and 
at  last  at  Newbury.  Here  he  found  "  a  glorious 
and  sweet  society  of  faithful  favourers,  who  had 
continued  the  space  of  fifteen  years  together,  till 
at  last,  by  a  certain  lewd  person  whom  they 
trusted  and   made  of   their  counsel,   they   were 


THE    GBEAT    ABJURATION         101 

bewrayed,  and  then  many  of  them,  to  the  number 
of  six  or  seven  score,  were  abjured,  and  three  or 
four  burnt."  No  trace  of  this  holocaust  is  to  be 
found  except  in  this  isolated  reference  (iv.  213). 
But  elsewhere  (iv.  217)  we  are  told  of  one  Chris- 
topher Shoemaker,  a  native  of  Great  Missenden, 
who  met  with  a  fiery  death  at  Newbury  in  1518. 
He  was  charged  with  having  read  to  Joan  Say, 
of  Little  Missenden,  "out  of  a  little  book,  the 
words  which  Christ  spake  to  His  disciples,"  and 
with  having  spoken  against  pilgrimages,  image- 
worship,  and  transubstantiation. 

On  leaving  Newbury,  Man  made  his  way  to 
the  neighbourhood  of  Windsor,  where  he  heard 
that  there  was  "  a  godly  and  a  great  company  " 
at  Amersham,  to  which  he  betook  himself,  and 
where  he  became  a  trusted  teacher,  being  known 
as  "  Doctor  Man."  In  all  his  wanderings,  while 
working  for  his  daily  bread,  Man  was  diligent  in 
the  spread  of  his  principles,  and  thanked  God 
that  he  had  made  seven  hundred  converts.  He 
also  assisted  several  persons  to  escape  from  Amer- 
sham, and  the  neighbourhood  to  the  eastern 
counties,  where  he  considered  that  there  would 
be  greater  safety  for  them.  One  of  these  may 
have  been  Henry  Miller,  who  had  come  to  Amer- 
sham from  Kent,  where  he  had  abjured  and  done 
penance.  At  Amersham,  he  worked  as  a  wire- 
drawer,  "  taught  many  heresies,"  and  after  a 
while  fled  to  Chelmsford  (iv.  228).  The  time 
came  when  Man  had  to  flee  also.  He  seems  to 
have   found   shelter  for  a   time  in  the  house  of 


102  THE    LOLLAEDS 

Andrew  Kandal  of  Rickmansworth  (iv.  226).  In 
February,  1518,  he  was  apprehended  and  brought 
before  Dr.  Hed,  Chancellor  of  the  diocese  of 
London.  It  was  asserted  that  he  again  recanted  ; 
but  this  seems  doubtful.  On  March  29th  he  was 
delivered  to  the  secular  power,  with  the  usual 
hypocritical  request  that  he  might  not  be  put 
to  death  ;  but  before  noon  of  the  next  day,  he  was 
committed  to  the  flames  in  Smithfield.  There 
seem  hopeless  confusions  as  to  dates  in  Foxe's 
narrative;  but  some  of  these,  perhaps,  may  be 
due  to  the  fact  casually  mentioned  (iv.  234)  that 
there  was  at  Amersham  "  another  Thomas  Man," 
probably  a  permanent  resident ;  and  most  likely 
it  was  to  the  house  of  this  latter  that  the  visitors 
before  mentioned  from  London  and  Harrow  were 
accustomed  to  resort.  One  of  the  two  was 
charged  with  joining  with  the  martyr  Robert 
Cosin  in  dissuading  Joan  Norman  from  pilgri- 
mages, image- worship,  fasting  communion,  and 
auricular  confession.  "  Also  when  she  had  vowed 
a  piece  of  silver  to  a  saint  for  the  health  of  a 
child  ,  they  (Thomas  Man  and  Robert  Cosin) 
dissuaded  her  from  the  same  "  (iv.  214).  This 
must  have  been  not  later  than  1506. 


CHAPTER  XI 

JOHN  FOXE   AND  THE  LONGLAND  REGISTER 

We  have  now  reached  the  year  1521,  when  John 
Longland,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  instituted  a  strict 
inquiry  into  the  prevalence  of  heresy  at  Amer- 
sham  and  elsewhere.  The  account  of  this,  with 
copious  extracts  from  the  register,  occupies 
nearly  thirty  pages  of  Stoughton's  edition  of  Foxe 
(iv.  217-246).  It  possesses  a  special  interest 
from  the  date.  1521  was  the  year  in  which  Luther 
stood  before  the  Diet  of  Worms  ;  and  his  views 
were  not  only  as  yet  but  partially  formulated, 
but  could  only  be  known  to  very  few  in  England. 
We  have  here,  therefore,  the  latest  picture  of 
English  Lollardy.  A  year  or  two  more,  and  it 
was  greatly  modified  by  Lutheran  influences. 
Foxe,  with  all  his  inaccuracies,  had  a  keen  per- 
ception of  the  broad  aspects  of  history.  He  shows 
this  when  he  points  to  these  records  as  a  complete 
answer  to  the  question,  "  Where  was  Protes- 
tantism before  Luther?"  and  goes  on  to  say  : — 
"  Although  pubhc  authority  then  lacked  to 
maintain  the  open  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  yet  the 
secret  multitude  of  professors  was  not  much  un- 
103 


104  THE    LOLLARDS 

equal  :  certes,  the  fervent  zeal  of  those  Christian 
days  seemed  much  superior  to  these  our  days  and 
times,  as  manifestly  may  appear  by  their  sitting 
up  all  night  reading  and  hearing  :  also  by  their 
expenses  and  charges  in  buying  of  books  in  Eng- 
lish, of  whom  some  gave  five  marks  "  (about  ^640 
of  present  value),  "  some  more,  some  less,  for  a 
book.    Some  gave  a  load  of  hay  for  a  few  chapters 

of  St.  James  or  of  St.  Paul  in  English 

To  see  their  travails,  their  earnest  seekings,  their 
burning  zeal,  their  readings,  their  watchings, 
their  sweet  assemblies,  their  love  and  concord, 
their  godly  living,  their  faithful  demeaning  with 
the  faithful,  may  make  us  now,  in  these  our  days 
of  free  profession,  to  blush  for  shame." 

With  express  reference  to  the  register  here 
cited  by  Foxe,  Mr.  Froude  (History,  i.  545,  546) 
calls  Longland  "  a  wicked  old  man,"  "  a  person 
in  whom  the  spirit  of  humanity  had  been  long 
exorcised  by  the  spirit  of  an  ecclesiastic,"  and 
describes  him  as  ' '  staggering  along  the  last  years 
of  a  life  against  which  his  own  register  bears 
dreadful  witness."  The  Eev.  A.  R.  Maddison, 
F.S.A.,  in  a  paper  published  a  few  years  ago  by 
the  Lincoln  Diocesan  Architectural  Society,  seeks 
to  defend  Longland  from  the  charges  brought 
against  him  by  Foxe,  and  repeated  by  Froude  on 
Foxe's  authority.     He  says  : — 

"It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  a  vast  number 
of  Foxe's  references  to  Longland's  Register  can- 
not be  verified.  I  can  vouch  for  this,  as  I  have 
myself   carefully  gone   through  the   memoranda, 


THE    LOXGLAXD    REGISTER       105 

which  commence  with  the  first  year  of  Longland's 
eijiscopate,  and  end  with  the  last." 

Mr.  Maddison  suggests  various  explanations  of 
the  difficulty,  as  the  existence  of  another  register, 
now  lost ;  that  Foxe  may  have  trusted  to  garbled 
extracts  made  by  others — from  what  documents? 
it  may  be  asked;  and  finally,  the  hypothesis  of 
a  deliberate  forgery.  The  last  conclusion  appears 
to  be  that  which  he  personally  favours,  for  he 
goes  on  to  say  : — 

"  Had  he  not  so  persistently  quoted  Longland's 
Register  at  Lincoln  as  the  source  of  his  infor- 
mation, his  stories  would  probably  never  have 
been  discredited  ;  but  unfortunately  the  temptation 
to  give  an  appearance  of  veracity  has  proved  fatal 
to  his  purpose." 

I  fear  that  it  must  be  said  of  Mr.  Maddison 
that  unfortunately  the  temptation  to  discredit 
an  unpopular  writer  has  led  him  to  attach  impor- 
tance to  the  discovery  of  a  mare's  nest.  If  this 
"  register  "  is  a  forgery,  it  is  one  of  the  cleverest 
the  world  has  ever  seen.  Inimitably  simple  in 
its  delineations  of  life  and  character,  consistent 
in  all  its  parts,  full  of  minute  local  and  family 
details,  which,  as  we  shall  see,  are  capable  of 
confirmation  from  all  kinds  of  sources,  it  bears 
eveiy  mark  of  genineness.  With  all  due  respect 
to  Foxe,  I  am  sure  that  worthy  and  eloquent, 
but  terribly  rambling  old  writer  could  never  have 
produced  so  complicated,  yet  so  clear  and  consis- 
tent a  document  (though  he  has  evidently 
interpolated  remarks  of  his  own  here  and  there). 


106  THE    LOLLARDS 

As  regards  the  absence  of  any  such  document  at 
Lincohi,  Mr.  Maddison  is  not  the  first  writer 
who  has  called  attention  to  it.  Dr.  Churton,  in 
his  Founders  of  Brasenose  (p.  137,  note)  accounts 
for  it  by  saying  that  "  Bonner  had  a  famous  com- 
mission from  Queen  Mary  to  search  all  registers, 
and  to  take  out  of  them  everything  inimical  or 
discreditable  to  Popery."  But  Bonner  has  quite 
enough  sins  laid  to  his  charge,  without  making 
him  responsible  for  the  loss  of  this  or  any  other 
document.  The  good  Doctor  fails  to  show  how, 
if  Bonner  had  destroyed  the  register  in  the  time 
of  Mary,  Foxe  could  have  "  turned  it  over,"  as 
he  tells  us  that  he  did,  in  the  time  of  Elizabeth. 
It  is  more  to  the  point  that  Foxe's  quotations 
from  the  extant  registers  of  other  dioceses  are 
found  to  be  substantially  correct.  Froude's 
testimony  on  this  point  has  already  been  cited. 
We  have  seen,  too,  that  it  was  possible  for  a 
document  to  find  its  way  from  Lincoln  to  Oxford 
in  spite  of  Bishop  Russell's  anathema  on  any 
one  removing  it  from  the  diocesan  registry.  I 
also  learn,  by  a  courteous  communication  from 
Mr.  Maddison  himself,  that  Matthew  Parker, 
when  Dean  of  Lincoln,  is  known  to  have  removed 
many  MSS.  from  Lincoln  to  Oxford.  On  the 
whole,  it  seems  likely  that  the  register  may  have 
been  the  separate  record  of  a  special  commission. 
At  least  fifty  surnames  which  occur  in  this  docu- 
ment, and  in  another  short  one  purporting  to  be 
an  extract  from  the  Registers,  are  still  locally 
familiar,   almost  all    in   the   same   or  adjoining 


THE    LOXGLAND    EEGISTER        107 

parishes,  though  often  with  a  slight  change  in 
spelling.  Africke  (now  Affleck),  Andrew,  Atkins, 
Bartlett,  Bennet,  Brown,  Chapman,  Chase, 
Clark,  Cooper,  Dean,  Dell,  Dosset,  Fastendich 
(now  Fassnidge),  Frier,  Garland,  Gardiner, 
George,  Gray,  Grove,  Harding,  Hawes,  Hawkes, 
Heme,  Hill,  Hoare,  Hobbes,  Jennings,  Morden 
(now  Morten),  Nash,  Norman,  Page,  Potter, 
Reve  (now  Reeves),  Rogers,  Saunders,  Simons, 
Smith,  Squire,  Taylor,  Timberlake,  Treacher, 
Tredway,  Ward,  Webb,  Wells,  Weedon,  White, 
and  Wingrove,  have  all  their  representatives  in 
the  district  to-day;  and  it  is  very  curious,  and 
characteristic  of  the  strange  separation  which  has 
always  been  noticeable  between  the  Chiltern 
country  and  the  Vale  of  Aylesbury,  that  scarcely 
any  of  these  surnames  occur  in  the  long  list  of 
those  prevalent  in  the  county  town,  given  by  the 
late  Mr.  Gibbs,  in  his  History  of  Aylesbury.  That 
town  is  only  sixteen  miles  from  Amersham,  yet 
there  is  no  trace  of  Lollardy  in  its  annals.  The 
hill-country  people,  "  the  uplandish  folk,"  were, 
and  long  continued,  almost  a  race  by  themselves. 
There  are  names  in  the  document,  such  as  Gud- 
game,  Milsent,  Widmer,  and  others,  which  seem 
to  have  died  out  in  the  neighbourhood,  but  may 
still  be  traced,  either  in  authentic  documents,  or 
in  the  names  of  farms  formerly  held  by  these 
families. 

Applying  another  test,  the  parish  registers  of 
Amersham  commence  in  1562  ;  and  a  very  cursory 
examination  of  the  first  twelve  years  (in  which 


8 


108  THE    LOLLARDS 

I  am  indebted  to  the  courteous  assistance  of  Mr. 
J.  Cheese)  reveals  the  names  of  Barnard,  Bennett, 
Clark,  Dormer,  Dossett,  Harding  alias  Harden, 
Littlepage,  Morton,  Norman,  Saunders,  and 
Tredway,  all  given  by  Foxe  as  belonging  to  resi- 
dents at  Amersham  in  1521.  It  is  even  possible 
that  the  Roger  Bennett,  whose  wile  Joan  was 
buried  July  21st,  1567,  and  the  Alice  Tredway, 
buried  February  20th,  1564,  might  be  the  persons 
of  the  same  names  who  gave  evidence  before  the 
commission  ;  but  most  of  the  names  must  be  of 
the  next  generation. 

Again,  in  some  extracts  from  the  Amersham 
churchwardens'  accounts,  given  by  Dr.  F.  G.  Lee 
in  the  Records  of  Buckinghamshire  (vii.  43-51) 
we  recognise  in  1530  and  1541  the  names  of 
Robert  Bartlett,  John  Gardiner,  Henry,  Thomas, 
Edmund,  and  Roger  Harding,  and  John  Hill,  as 
well  as  the  surnames  of  Barnard,  Bennett, 
Dormer,  Dossett,  Milsent,  Saunders,  Stamp, 
Timberlake,  and  Tredway.  There  is  thus  cumu- 
lative evidence  that  we  are  dealing  with  a  veritable 
historical  document,  not  with  a  concoction  of 
Foxe's  own. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  JUSTFAST  MEN   OF  AMERSHAW 

The  Bishops  of  Lincoln,  in  their  visits  to  the 
southern  part  of  their  vast  diocese,  were  accus- 
tomed to  leave  the  Great  North  Eoad  at  Hatfield, 
and  to  pass  along  "  the  Bishops'  Road  "  to  Amer- 
sham,  Wycombe,  and  Henley.     It  was  along  this 
road,  most  likely,  that  Bishop  Longland  passed  in 
1521.     On  arriving  at  Amersham,  he  commenced, 
according  to  Foxe's  account,  by  examining  on  oath 
some  of  those  who  had  abjured  in  1506.     These, 
"on   pain  of  relapse,"  that   is,   of   death,  were 
compelled   to   denounce   those  who  shared   their 
belief,  and  as  one  after  another  was  denounced, 
they  also  were  summoned  and  examined,  often  re- 
peatedly, the  subjects  of  inquiry  going  back  some 
twenty  or  thirty  years,  till  the  number  of  those 
suspected  of  heresy  amounted  to  some  two  hun- 
dred.    The  proceedings  seem  to  have  lasted  for 
several  months,  and  give  us  a  vivid  idea  of  the 
methods   of    "  the    Enghsh    Inquisition."     Hus- 
bands, wives,  parents,  children,  brothers  and  sis- 
ters, were  forced  to  betray  one  another.       The 
evidence   implicated   persons  in   the  dioceses   of 
London   and  Salisbury,  as   well  as   in   that   of 
109 


no  THE    LOLLARDS 

Lincoln  ;  but  two  districts  were  specially  affected. 
One  was  the  Chiltem  district  in  Buckinghamshire, 
around  Amersham,  Wycombe,  and  Beaconsfield, 
and  including  the  Thames-side  from  Henley  down 
to  Staines.  The  other  lay  some  miles  to  the  west, 
in  Berkshire  and  Oxfordshire,  taking  in  both  sides 
of  the  Thames,  with  the  valley  of  the  Kennet. 
The  northern  parts  of  Buckinghamshire  and 
Oxfordshire  are  never  mentioned.  To  a  large 
extent,  South  Bucks  was  Lollard,  but  North 
Bucks  remained  devoutly  Catholic  ;  just  as  in  the 
next  century,  the  former  took  sides  with  the  Par- 
liament, and  the  latter  with  the  King. 

In  these  districts,  it  was  found,  there  existed 
a  community  known  as  "  the  Justfast  Men,"  or 
"  the  Known  Men,"  who  were  believed  to  regard 
themselves  as  the  only  true  Christians,  and  to 
many  only  among  themselves.  The  name  of  the 
"  known  men  "  was  one  of  old  standing  among 
the  Lollards.  Seventy  years  earlier.  Bishop 
Pecock  tells  us  that  the  test  question  which  one 
would  put  to  another  when  he  wished  to  learn  if 
a  third  party  was  trustworthy,  was,  "Is  he  a 
know^n  man?"  He  says  that  they  used  it  in  the 
sense  of  being  "known  of  God" — "the  Lord 
knoweth  them  that  are  His." 

Longland  came  to  Amersham,  it  appears,  in 
person,  and  understanding  that  a  family  named 
Bartlet  were  among  the  most  influential  persons 
suspected  of  heresy,  resolved  to  make  an  example 
of  them.  He  summoned  before  him  Robert  and 
Richard   Bartlet,   well-to-do  farmers,   who,  with 


THE    JUSTFAST    MEN  111 

their  brother  John,  had  abjured  and  done  penance 
at  Tylsworth's  mart)'rdom.  They  were  the  sons 
of  old  Richard  Bartlet,  of  whom  it  was  told  that 
one  day,  as  he  was  threshing,  a  passer-by  had 
said  to  him,  "God  speed,  Father  Bartlet,  ye 
work  sore."  "  Yea,"  answered  the  old  man, 
with  a  satirical  reference  to  the  doctrine  of  tran- 
substantiation,  "  I  thresh  God  Almighty  out  of 
the  straw."  The  old  yeoman's  wife  Katharine 
seldom  went  to  church,  pleading  ill  health,  and 
it  was  noted  that  when  she  did  attend,  she  did 
not  join  in  the  prayers,  but  "  sat  mum."  As  to 
Robert  Bartlet,  we  have  seen  that  he  was  im- 
prisoned at  Ashridge  in  the  College  of  the 
Precious  Blood  about  1506.  He  was  released 
about  1513.  Unable  to  rest  in  the  doctrines  of 
Rome,  he  told  his  neighbour  Alice  Harding  that 
"  he  had  thought  to  have  called  William  Tyls- 
worth  false  heretic,  but  now  he  was  better 
advised."  Mistress  Harding  encouraged  him  to 
stedfastness.  "  I  am  glad,"  said  she,  "  that  you 
are  converted  to  grace,  and  chosen  to  Almighty 
God.  Never  forsake  that  you  are  called  to  ;  for 
if  you  do,  there  is  no  hope  left  for  you."  Of 
Richard  she  had  said,  "  Here  cometh  a  good  man, 
and  T  hope  he  will  be  a  good  man  ;  but  he  hath  so 
much  mind  of  buying  and  selHng  and  taking  of 
farms  that  it  putteth  his  mind  from  all  goodness." 
The  Bishop's  officer  made  his  way  to  Robert 
Bartlet's  house,  and  summoned  him  to  attend  the 
inquiry.  His  wife  Isabel,  standing  "  between  the 
threshold  and  the  hall  door,"  exclaimed  in  her 


112  THE    LOLLARDS 

anguish,  "Alas!  now  you  are  but  an  undone 
man,  and  I  but  a  dead  woman!"  The  two 
brothers,  when  examined,  refused  to  criminate 
themselves.  On  this  the  Bishop  went  to  the 
house  of  William  Chedwell,  another  person  who 
had  abjured,  and  who  was  now  lying  "  sore  sick 
in  his  bed."  He  administered  an  oath  to  him 
on  the  Gospels  (these  "  know^n  men  "  do  not 
seem  to  have  shared  the  objection  to  oaths 
expressed  by  some  of  the  Lollards,  as  by  those 
burned  at  Coventry  two  years  earlier  than  this) ; 
and  from  him  and  several  others  he  got  sufficient 
evidence  to  implicate  the  brothers.  He  also 
examined  their  wives.  From  Eichard's  wife  he 
easily  obtained  what  he  required  ;  but  Isabel  was 
"  somewhat  more  temperate  of  her  tongue,"  and 
tried  her  utmost  to  shield  her  husband.  Robert 
was  called  again.  "  Did  you  know  your  wife  to 
be  of  the  sect  of  heretics  before  you  married 
her"?  asked  Longland.  "  Yea,"  answered  Bart- 
let.  "  If  she  had  not  been  of  that  sect,  would 
you  then  have  married  her?"  "  I  would,"  he 
replied  ;  which  seems  to  show  that  he  at  least 
did  not  share  the  strict  views  on  marriage 
ascribed  to  the  "  Known  Men."  He  had  to 
acknowdedge  that  he  had  been  conversant  with 
William  Tylsworth,  Thurstan  Littlepage,  and 
Alexander  Mastall.  He  had  received  the  com- 
mnnion  at  Easter  without  confession,  and  he  and 
Littlepage  between  them  had  taught  his  sister 
Agnes  the  Epistle  of  James.  He  and  his  brother 
John  (who  was  now  probably  dead)  had  attended 


THE    JUSTFAST    MEN  113 

meetings  addressed  by  the  three  leaders  just 
mentioned.  "  And  if  any  came  in  among  them 
tliat  were  not  of  their  side,  then  they  would  say 
no  more,  but  would  keep  all  silence."  He  and 
his  brother  Richard  "detected  "  (be  it  remem- 
bered in  dread  of  a  fiery  death)  their  own  sister 
Agnes  Wells,  as  guilty  of  the  four  great  crimes, 
on  which  all  these  examinations  mainly 
turned  : — 

(1).     Reading  the  Scriptures  in   English. 

(2).     Denying  the  bodily  presence  of  Christ 
in  the  Eucharist. 

(3).     Rejecting  the  worship  of  images. 

(4).  Speaking  against  pilgrimages. 
The  sister  herself  was  next  questioned,  and  at 
first  refused  to  criminate  any  one  else,  but  was 
forced  to  do  so  by  a  rigorous  cross-examination. 
Isabel  Bartlet,  summoned  again,  was  asked  about 
her  exclamation  at  the  hall-door.  She  tried  to 
explain  it  away,  but  in  so  doing  the  poor  creature 
contradicted  her  husband's  evidence  ;  and  she 
also  "  detected  "  several  heretics  both  at  Amer- 
sham  and  Hughenden.  Ultimately  the  two 
brothers  and  the  sister  had  to  do  penance.  Robert 
Bartlet  held  two  pieces  of  land  at  Amersham  in 
1541,  as  appears  by  the  churchwardens'  accounts. 
Another  prominent  family  was  that  of  the 
Hardings,  representatives  of  which,  still  mindful 
of  their  Lollard  descent,  are  to  be  found  now 
in  Amersham  and  the  neighbouring  towns.  The 
"  Old  Meeting  "  or  Upper  Baptist  Chapel  was 
built  in   the  eighteenth  century  by  members  of 


114  THE    LOLLARDS 

this  family,  and  several  of  them  are  interred  in 
its  Httle  burying-ground.  In  1506,  Thomas 
Harding  and  Alice  his  wife,  Henry,  Richard,  and 
Robert  Harding  had  carried  faggots  up  the  hill 
to  Tylsworth's  martyrdom,  William,  Roger,  and 
Edmund  Harding  were  also  suspected  of  heresy. 
William  and  Roger  had  failed  to  appear  when 
summoned  by  the  Bishop's  Chancellor.  Roger 
"  could  not  say  his  creed  in  Latin."  But  Thomas 
and  his  wife  were  the  most  conspicuous  of  all. 
Eslewhere  (iv.  580)  Foxe  tells  us  that  after  doing 
penance  in  1506,  they  wore  badges  till  1515, 
when  Bishop  Smith  mitigated  their  penance,  but 
enjoined  them  to  go  once  a  year  on  pilgrimage 
to  Ashridge,  to  fast  on  bread  and  ale  upon  Cor- 
pus Christi  Eve,  and  never  to  remove  from  the 
parish  of  Amersham.  During  this  inquiry,  it 
seems,  Thomas  was  examined,  but  refused  to 
detect  others.  "  In  penance  for  his  perjury," 
Longland  ordered  him  to  resume  his  badge, 
wearing  for  the  rest  of  his  life  a  patch  of  green 
cloth,  embroidered  like  a  faggot,  before  and  be- 
hind. It  is  difficult  to  understand  how  he  and 
his  wife  escaped  so  lightly,  as  several  witnesses 
implicated  them.  Perhaps  some  of  the  evidence 
referred  to  matters  prior  to  the  Great  Abjura- 
tion;  but  Thomas,  as  we  shall  see,  was  not  to 
meet  his  fiery  death  for  eleven  years  longer.  It 
was  certainly  deposed  that  he  and  his  wife  did 
not  join  in  the  prayers  at  church,  and  that  many 
"  known  men  "  resorted  to  their  house  after  the 
abjuration.       Alice    Harding    was    evidently    a 


THE    JUSTFAST    MEN  115 

woman  of  some  energy  and  force  of  character. 
We  have  seen  how  she  exhorted  the  brothers 
Bartlet ;  and  Chedwell,  the  sick  man,  told  how 
"  when  the  priest  was  coming  to  Richard  Bennet 
to  give  him  the  housel  "  (probably  on  his  death- 
bed) Alice  Harding  "  went  before,  and  instructed 
him  what  he  should  do."  Isabel  Tracher,  too, 
had  put  her  daughter  to  service  with  Alice  Har- 
ding, "  because  she  could  instruct  her  better  than 
many  others."  The  wives  of  Roger  and  William 
and  the  former's  eldest  daughter,  also  came  under 
suspicion. 

The  Richard  Bennet  just  now  mentioned,  with 
his  brother  Roger,  had  been  among  the  faggot- 
bearers  in  1506.  Roger  was  now  examined,  and 
proved  an  important  witness.  He  "detected" 
nearly  thirty  persons  in  Amersham  and  else- 
where. Several  women,  he  said,  on  their  way 
to  and  from  church,  "  were  wont  to  resort  to 
one  J.  Collingworth's  house,  and  there  keep  their 
conventicle."  Mr.  S.  R.  Pattison,  by  the  way, 
in  his  Religious  Topography  of  England,  refers 
to  this  as  "  what  appears  to  have  been  the  first 
mention  of  a  conventicle  in  English  history;" 
but  the  word  often  occurs  in  fifteenth-century 
documents.  This  "J.  Cdllingworth  "  was  pro- 
bably the  same  as  Joan  Collingborne,  who  had 
been  denounced  to  Bishop  Smith  by  Alice  Tred- 
way  in  1511,  for  speaking  against  pilgrimages 
and  image-worship.  Bennet  also  mentioned  that 
his  own  servant  Thomas  Gray,  with  John 
Jennings,  James  Morden's  servant,  and  "  George, 


116  THE    LOLLAEDS 

servant  to  Thomas  Tochel,"  had  "  carried  about 
books  in  English."  He  himself  had  given  or 
lent  one  of  these  books  to  John  Butler,  a  car- 
penter, a  leading  "known  man"  at  Uxbridge ; 
and  he  was  also  acquainted  with  a  woman  at 
Henley,  married  to  one  David  Lewis,  who  was 
the  daughter  of  a  man  suspect  of  heresy.  She 
had  been  heard  to  say,  "  The  churchmen  in  old 
time  did  lead  the  people  as  the  hen  doth  lead 
the  chickens  ;  but  our  priests  do  now  lead  the 
people  to  the  devil." 

The  next  witness  was  Thomas  Rowland,  appa- 
rently a  man-servant.  He  was  suspected  on 
what  seems  a  comically  slight  ground.  He  had 
once  said,  "  If  I  lie,  curse,  storm,  swear,  chide, 
fight,  or  threat,  then  am  I  worthy  to  be  beat; 
I  pray  you,  good  master  of  mine,  if  I  offend  in 
any  of  these  seven,  amend  me  with  a  good  scou- 
ring." It  was  more  to  the  purpose  that  he  had 
been  heard  to  say  at  another  time  to  a  friend, 
'  Ah,  good  Lord  !  where  is  all  our  good  conver- 
sation that  used  to  be  among  us  when  your  master 
was  alive?"  Rowland  said  that  he  had  seen 
Agnes  Frank,  William  Frank's  wife  (who  had 
been  abjured  before  her  marriage)  "turn  away 
her  face  from  the  cross,  as  it  w^as  carried  about 
on  Easter  day  in  the  morning  of  the  resurrec- 
tion." He  knew,  too,  that  old  John  Scrivener 
had  "  carried  about  books  from  one  to  another." 
Mr.  Pattison,  referring  to  this,  speaks  of 
Scrivener  as  "  the  first  English  colpojieur  on 
record  ;"  but  the  reference  ig  too  vague  to  justify 


THE    JUSTFAST    MEN  117 

such  a  conclusion;  besides,  the  charge  was 
brought  against  others  at  the  same  time.  Row- 
land also  mentioned  "J.  Gardiner"  who  may 
have  been  the  John  Gardiner  of  Raans,  men- 
tioned in  the  Churchwarden's  accounts  in  1541. 

James  Morden  next  comes  before  us.  He  is 
described  in  one  place  as  a  "labourer;"  but  if 
he  were  the  same  person  who  had  a  servant, 
John  Jennings,  in  his  employ,  he  cannot  have 
been  a  labourer  in  the  ordinary  sense.  The  term 
was  often  very  vaguely  used  ;  and  one  remembers 
how,  within  the  nineteenth  century,  that  fine 
old  relic  of  medievalism,  Bishop  Philpotts  of 
Exeter,  cited  a  newspaper  editor  before  him  as 
a  "  labourer."  Whatever  his  position,  Morden 
had  been  abjured  by  Bishop  Smith,  who  found 
that  "  he  had  used  his  Paternoster  and  Creed  so 
much  in  English,  that  he  had  forgotten  many 
words  thereof  in  Latin."  The  Bishop  bade  him 
for  the  future  to  say  them  in  I^atin  only,  and 
enjoined  on  him  a  pilgrimage  twice  a  year  to 
Lincoln.  After  a  year  or  two,  Morden  had  sub- 
stituted, without  permission,  a  pilgrimage  to 
Missenden,  and  had  also  been  working  six  months 
out  of  the  diocese,  contrary  to  the  injunction 
he  had  received  not  to  leave  it.  He  was  now 
charged  with  this  disobedience.  The  poor  fellow 
confessed  that  he  had  "  learnt  his  doctrine  "  of 
Thomas  Chase,  and  of  Agnes  Ashford,  of  Ches- 
ham,  to  whom  he  had  paid  seven  visits  before 
he  could  learn  by  heart  a  few  verses  of  the  fifth 
chapter  of  Matthew.    His  sister  Marian  testified 


118  THE    LOLLARDS 

that  he  had  taught  her  the  Paternoster,  Ave, 
and  Creed,  in  EngHsh,  and  that  he  had  per- 
suaded her  for  the  last  six  years  not  to  go  on 
pilgrimages  or  worship  images.  There  were  two 
brothers,  Richard  and  Radulph,  living  at  Ches- 
ham,  and  an  uncle,  John  Morden,  of  Ashley 
Green,  who  were  all  suspected  of  heresy.  James 
Morden,  as  we  shall  see,  was  ultimately  burned, 
and  his  sister  Marian  abjured.  Morten,  as  the 
name  is  now  spelt,  is  a  well-known  name  in  the 
later  annuls  of  Amersham  Nonconformity. 

Another  witness,  Thomas  Halfeaker,  who 
appears  to  have  had  no  sympathy  with  the 
"  known  men,"  mentioned  a  number  of  persons 
as  taking  no  part  in  the  prayers  when  they 
attended  service  at  Amersham  Church  ;  also  others 
who  had  removed  to  a  distance. 

Thomas  Holmes,  who  had  borne  a  faggot  in 
1506,  horrified  the  townsfolk  by  the  wholesale 
manner  in  which  he  now  betrayed  his  brethren, 
and  they  came  to  the  conclusion  that  he  must 
be  "a  fee'd  man  of  the  Bishop."  He  named 
nearly  sixty  persons,  not  only  in  Amersham,  and 
in  the  neighbouring  villages,  but  in  various  parts 
of  Herts,  Middlesex,  and  Oxfordshire. 

One  John  Sawcoat  mentioned  Richard  Sanders 
as  "  ever  defending  them  that  were  suspected  to 
be  known  men,"  and  as  having  "  bought  out 
his  penance,  and  carried  his  badge  in  his  purse." 
His  wife  Alice  Sanders,  according  to  another 
witness,  gave  Thomas  Holmes  a  shilling  to  buy 
a  book  for  her  daughter,  when  he  told  her  that 


THE    JUSTFAST    MEN  119 

a  noble  (6s.  8d.)  would  not  suffice  to  buy  it. 
Another  time  she  had  contributed  6d.  towards 
the  purchase  of  a  book  which  cost  no  less  than 
five  marks  (^63  6s.  8d.) — a  glimpse,  by  the  way, 
at  the  method  by  which  expensive  books  were 
sometimes  obtained.  Of  course  these  sums  must 
be  multiplied  ten  or  twelve  times  to  get  at  the 
value  at  the  present  day.  One  thinks  of  this 
couple  as  well-to-do,  but  somewhat  stingy  people 
— the  parents,  perhaps,  of  the  Thomas  Sanders 
who  is  mentioned  in  the  churchwardens'  accounts 
as  holding  three  pieces  of  land  at  Amershara 
twenty  years  later.  He  seems  to  have  then 
resided  at  the  "  Bywyre  "  (Bury  Farm?)  There 
was  a  man  named  Thomas  Houre,  who  some- 
times worked  for  Richard  Sanders,  and  was  "  a 
holy  water  clerk  "  at  the  church.  He  had  been 
supposed  to  lean  to  the  views  of  the  "  known 
men,"  but  had  afterwards  given  evidence  against 
them  before  Bishop  Smith.  On  his  coming  back 
one  day  from  Wooburn,  Mistress  Sanders  asked 
him,  "What  news?"  He  replied  that  "many 
were  there  condemned  of  heresy,  and  therefore 
he  would  lean  to  that  way  no  more."  She  imme- 
diately told  him  that  "  he  would  gain  nothing 
by  it."  He  got  no  more  work  for  her  husband, 
and  not  only  so,  but  he  lost  his  "  holy- water 
clerkship  "  (this  looks  as  if  some  of  the  local 
clergy  must  have  had  Lollard  leanings,  and  one 
of  them,  John  Barber,  was  actually  accused  of 
Lollardy).  Houre  came  down  in  the  world,  and 
probably  considered  himself  a  sort  of  martyr  of 


120  THE    LOLLAEDS 

orthodoxy  ;  but  his  old  mistress  commented  on 
his  downfall  as  a  judgment  for  his  informing, 
and  held  him  up  as  a  warning  to  others.  A 
curious  glimpse  into  the  cross-currents  of  life  in 
the  little  town. 

Two  persons  of  the  name  of  John  Scrivener, 
probably  father  and  son,  were  examined.  The 
younger  was  prevailed  on  to  denounce  a  number 
of  persons ;  but  from  the  elder,  the  so-called 
"colporteur,"  vei-y  httle  could  be  elicited.  It 
was  no  doubt  the  latter  who  had  been  abjured 
in  1506,  and  who  was  afterwards  burned  for 
relapse. 

The  William  Littlepage,  before  mentioned  as 
surviving  till  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  was  appren- 
ticed to  one  of  these  Scriveners,  who  seem  to 
have  been  blacksmiths.  He  had  learned  the 
Lord's  Prayer  and  the  "  Hail  Mary  "  in  English 
from  Thurstan  Littlepage,  who  seems  to  have 
been  his  grandfather,  the  Creed  from  his  grand- 
mother, and  the  Ten  Commandments  from  one 
John  Frier.  He  and  his  brother  John  were  now 
abjured. 

Several  witnesses  had  implicated  John  Mor- 
win's  wife,  Isabel.  She  was  examined,  but 
without  much  result.  Her  sister,  Elizabeth 
Copland,  was  then  forced  to  appear  against  her. 
She  stated  that  as  they  returned  from  a  visit 
to  their  dying  father,  Isabel  had  said  to  her, 
"  All  who  die  pass  either  to  hell  or  heaven,"  to 
which  Elizabeth  replied,  "  Nay,  there  is  between 
them  purgatory." 


THE    JUSTFAST    MEN  121 

At  another  time,  when  Elizabeth  had  been  on 
pilgrimage  to  the  "  Rood  of  Eest,"  the  following 
conversation  took  place  between  the  sisters  :  — 

"  If  you  knew  as  much  as  I  have  heard," 
said  Isabel,  "  you  would  go  no  more  on  pil- 
grimage while  you  live ;  for  all  saints  be  in 
heaven." 

"  Wherefore  then  is  pilgrimage  ordained  by 
doctors  and  priests?"  asked  Elizabeth. 

"For  gain  and  profit." 

"  Who  hath  taught  you  this,  man  or  w^oman? 
Your  curate,  I  dare  say,  never  learned  you  so." 

"My  curate  will  never  know  so  much;  but 
if  you  will  keep  counsel,  and  not  tell  your  hus- 
band, I  will  say  more." 

"  I  will  not  tell." 

"  But  I  will  have  you  to  swear." 

Elizabeth  would  not  do  this,  so  the  conver- 
sation went  no  further.  Isabel  Morwin  was  now 
abjured. 

Emme  Tylsworth,  either  widow  or  sister  of 
the  martyr,  who  had  removed  to  Hawkswell, 
near  Eomford  in  Essex,  was  summoned,  but 
proved  an  intractable  witness.  She  would  neither 
criminate  herself  nor  others ;  and  the  Bishop 
ordered  her,  under  pain  of  relapse,  to  "  make 
certain  faggots  of  cloth,  and  wear  them  on  her 
upper  garment,  as  long  as  she  lived." 

The  case  of  Thomas  Bernard,  "  husbandman," 
was  a  peculiarly  sad  one.  He  had  been  abjured 
in  1506,  but  had  trained  his  children,  Richard 
and  Joan,  in  his  views.    Their  evidence  was  now 


122  THE    LOLLARDS 

received  against  him,  and  probably  sent  him  to 
the  stake. 

Many  other  Amersham  folks  gave  evidence, 
and  many  more  were  suspected  of  heresy.  We 
read  of  John  Milsent,  Thomas  Dorman,  Eobert 
Andrew,  John  Hill,  and  John  Dosset,  who  had 
all  been  abjured  before.  A  man  named  Dorset 
or  Dosset  was  landlord  of  the  White  Hart  Inn 
a  few  years  later.  Thomas  Dorman,  "  Yeoman 
Dorman,"  as  he  was  called,  was  the  uncle  of  a 
Catholic  controversiahst  of  Elizabeth's  time,  who 
became  Foxe's  bitter  antagonist.  Then  there 
w^ere  William  Grinder,  who  "could  not  say  his 
creed  in  Latin;"  Wilham  Eogers,  perhaps  the 
"Father  Rogers"  who  had  been  imprisoned  in 
the  Little  Ease,  or  more  likely  his  son  ;  "  Heme's 
wife"  and  "Widow  Heme;"  John  Stamp  and 
William  Smith,  "wheelers;"  Alice  Holting, 
who  had  dined  before  taking  the  sacrament  on 
the  plea  of  delicate  health  ;  Joan  Norman ,  a  dis- 
ciple of  old  Robert  Cosin,  and  destined  to  share 
his  fiery  death  ;  William  Trecher,  who  had  "  kept 
Thomas  Grove  in  his  house  on  Easter  and  Christ- 
mas Day,  because  he  would  not  come  to  church  ;" 
Isabel,  his  wife,  who,  in  spite  of  her  husband's 
rebukes,  and  though  in  good  health,  had  refused 
to  go  to  church  upon  holy  days  for  the  last  three 
years;  Agnes  Squire,  who  had  boasted  that  she 
would  never  be  ashamed  of  having  been  abjured 
for  heresy;  and  Roger  Squire,  perhaps  her  hus- 
band, who  had  been  heard  to  mutter  a  curse 
on  seeing  one  of  the  informers. 


THE    JUSTFAST    MEN  123 

In  the  little  hamlet  of  Woodrow,  a  mile  out 
of  the  town  on  the  Wycombe  road,  were  two 
'■  known  men,"  Thomas  Cowper  and  Eobert 
Stampe.  The  later's  wife  used  to  attend  the 
"conventicle"  at  Joan  Collingworth's,  and  had 
neglected  to  perform  the  penance  enjoined  her  by 
Bishop  Smith.  Evidently  a  large  proportion  of 
the  inhabitants  of  Amersham  parish  failed  to 
come  up  to  the  standard  of  orthodoxy.  Not  all, 
perhaps,  of  those  who  symnathisod  with  the 
"  justfast  men  "  did  so  from  the  purest  motives ; 
but  a  strong  current  of  local  sympathy  was  cer- 
tainly running   in  their  favour. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

MORE  OF  THE  JUSTFAST   MEN 

While  Amersham,  as  we  have  seen,  was  the 
centre  and  rendezvous  of  the  Lollard  rem- 
nant in  this  part  of  the  country,  we  have 
abundant  evidence  that  they  were  widely  scat- 
tered throughout  the  surrounding  parishes.  In 
the  town  of  Chesham,  for  example,  three  miles 
north  of  Amersham,  there  were  several  persons 
suspected  of  heresy.  There  was  John  Tracher 
(probably  the  same  as  the  "John  Cracher " 
mentioned  as  doing  penance  in  1506),  who  had 
taught  Alice  Brown  the  Beatitudes  in  English. 
There  was  Agnes  Ashford,  who,  as  we  saw,  had 
taught  the  same  passage  to  James  Morden. 
Agnes,  we  are  told,  had  once  been  bidden  to 
recite  it  before  "  six  bishops  "  (a  rather  unhkely 
thing,  unless  she  had  been  taken  up  to  London), 
"  who  straightway  enjoined  and  commanded  her 
that  she  should  teach  those  lessons  no  more  to 
any  man,  and  especially  not  to  her  children." 
This  Agnes  seems  to  have  lived  with  her  son, 
Bichard  Ashford.  a  blacksmith,  at  whose  house 
she  and  some  friends  from  Uxbridge  once  spent 
two  hours  reading  in  "a  certain  book  of  the  Acts 
124 


MORE  OF  THE  JUSTFAST  MEN    125 

of  the  Apostles  in  English."  Thomas  Tredway, 
who  seems  to  have  been  her  son  by  a  former 
husband,  had  been  taught  by  her  not  to  worship 
the  images  of  the  saints.  Other  suspected  per- 
sons were  Eichard  and  Radulph  Morden,  the 
brothers  of  James  Morden  of  Amersham  ;  William 
Norton ;  Thomas  Clement ;  and  Joan  Grove,  who 
had  instructed  John  Hill  "  in  the  Epistle  of  St. 
James  and  other  opinions." 

The  proceedings  at  Chesham  were  varied  by 
a  case  of  witchcraft,  which  gives  a  vivid  idea  of 
the  superstition  of  the  time.  The  wife  of  a  man 
named  Sparke  had  lost  some  money,  which  had 
evidently  been  stolen.  Her  husband  sought  the 
counsel  of  two  friars.  They  advised  him  to  make 
two  balls  of  clay,  and  put  them  in  water,  enclo- 
sing in  them  the  names  of  the  persons  he  sus- 
pected. "  And  so  doing,  the  said  Sparke  came 
to  his  money  again."  Probably  the  thief  was 
afraid  to  face  the  direful  consequences  which  he 
looked  for  from  this  piece  of  sympathetic  magic. 
The  Bishop's  court  declined  to  proceed  in  this 
matter.  We  get  a  glimpse,  too,  of  a  quarrel 
between  this  same  John  Sparke  and  one  Thomas 
Hutton.  Sparke  had  called  Hutton  a  thief,  and 
was  fined  ten  shillings  by  the  magistrates;  but 
Hutton,  who  had  called  Sparke  "  heretic,"  "  paid 
nothing." 

In  the  little  hamlet  of  Ashley  Green, 
on  the  Hertfordshire  border,  lived  John 
Morden,  the  uncle  of  James,  Eichard,  and 
Radulph,    who   had    in    his    house    a    book    of 


126  THE    LOLLAEDS 

the  Gospels  and  "other  chapters  in  English." 
At  Little  Missenden,  three  miles  from  Amer- 
sham  up  the  beautiful  valley  of  the  Misbourne, 
the  Vicar  himself  was  believed  to  be  tainted  with 
heresy.  So  also  were  Elizabeth,  the  wife  of 
Henry  Hover;  John  Say,  to  whom  the  martyr 
Shoemaker  had  read  Christ's  w^ords  out  of  his 
"  httle  book  ;"  William  Say,  his  son  ;  two  Edward 
Popes  (father  and  son)  ;  John  Nash  ;  Henry  Etkin 
and  his  mother;  as  well  as  Joan  Clark  (perhaps 
the  unhappy  daughter  of  William  Tylsworth), 
who  had  said  "  she  never  did  believe  in  the  sacra- 
ment of  the  altar,  nor  ever  would  believe  in  it." 
Two  miles  further  up  the  Misbourne  lies  the 
village  of  Great  Missenden,  the  abode  of  the 
martyrs  Christopher  Shoemaker  and  Eobert 
Cosin.  Here  heresy  seems  to  have  penetrated 
not  only  so  near  to  the  walls  of  the  Abbey,  but 
to  the  very  shadow  of  St.  Mary's  shrine  ;  for  one 
of  the  Canons  of  the  Abbey  was  accused  of  it, 
with  what  result  does  not  appear.  Among  the 
villagers,  William  Atkins,  Eichard  Dell,  and 
Alice  Nash  are  mentioned  as  suspected.  The 
name  of  Dell  occurs  among  the  Bucks  Quakers 
of  the  next  century.  It  is  still  familiar  in  the 
parish. 

The  little  village  of  Hitchenden,  well  known 
under  its  modern  name  of  Hughenden  as  the 
abode  of  Lord  Beaconsfield,  gave  shelter  to 
several  Lollards  at  this  time.  Their  leader  was 
John  Phip,  described  as  a  physician,  who  had 
done  penance  in  1506.    He  is  said  to  have  been 


MOKE  OF  THE  JUSTFAST  MEN    127 

"  very  ripe  in  the  Scriptures,"  and  had  a  vaki- 
able  collection  of  books,  which  he  burned  when 
he  found  himself  in  danger.  His  neighbour 
Eoger  Parker  told  him  that  he  was  "  foul  to 
blame  "  for  this,  as  they  were  worth  a  hundred 
marks  (£600  or  i;700  of  present  value).  "  I  had 
rather  burn  my  books,"  sagely  answered  Phip, 
"  than  that  my  books  should  burn  me."  He 
M'as  now  called  before  the  Bishop,  but  was  so 
cautious  in  his  replies  that  no  relapse  could  be 
proved  against  him  by  his  own  evidence.  All 
that  could  be  elicited  from  him  was  a  story  about 
one  Thomas  Stilman,  M'ho,  when  imprisoned  in 
the  Lollards'  Tower  at  St.  Paul's,  had  managed 
to  climb  into  the  belfry,  where  he  cut  the  bell- 
ropes,  tied  two  of  them  together,  let  himself 
down  into  the  churchyard,  and  so  made  his 
escape.  Phip's  sister  Sybil,  and  her  husband 
Thomas  Africk  (who  lived  somewhere  in  the 
county,  but  not  at  Hughenden),  were  also  exa- 
mined against  him,  but  with  no  better  results. 
This  name  survives  in  the  district  in  the  form 
Affleck,  but  the  original  spelling  is  preserved  in 
Africk's  Farm,  Little  Missenden.  William  Phip, 
another  member  of  the  family,  testified  that  John 
had  spoken  against  image-worship,  and  other 
witnesses  had  heard  him  read  the  Gospels  and  a 
treatise  in  English  on  the  Lord's  Prayer.  His 
daughter,  too,  had  been  heard  to  say  that  "  she 
was  as  well  learned  in  all  things  as  the  parish 
priest,  save  only  the  saying  of  mass."  But 
William  Phip,   with  his   daughter,  and   his   son 


128  THE    LOLLARDS 

Henry,  were  under  suspicion  too.  William 
had  spoken  to  one  Eoger  Dods  about  image- 
worship,  and  then  told  him  "  it  was  good 
to  be  merry  and  wise,"  meaning  "he  should 
keep  close  that  was  told  him,  or  else  strait 
punishment  would  follow."  Eoger  said  that 
once,  in  1515,  he  had  asked  young  Henry  Phip 
whether  he  was  going  to  Wycombe.  Henry 
had  just  been  chosen  "  keeper  of  the  rood-loft," 
and  carelessly  answered,  "  I  must  needs  go  and 
tend  a  candle  before  my  Block  Almighty."  Tt 
does  not  very  clearly  appear  from  this  wiiether 
the  crucifix  he  referred  to  was  at  Wycombe  or 
Hughenden.  Mr.  Parker  (History  and  Antiqui- 
ties of  Wijcomhe,  p.  136)  says  it  was  in  the  old 
Guild  Chapel  of  St.  Mary.  Henry  was  now 
cited  and  compelled  to  own  his  words  ;  and  both 
he  and  John  Phip  afterwards  abjured. 

One  little  point  in  William  Phip's  evidence 
ought  not  to  be  passed  by  without  notice.  He 
stated  that  Thomas  Africk,  in  asking  for  his 
relations  at  Hughenden ,  enquired  ' '  How  do  my 
cousin  Widmore,  and  Clerk  the  elder,  and  John 
Phip  do  at  Hichenden?  Do  they  keep  the  laws 
of  God,  as  they  were  w'ont?"  Now  this  is  a 
way  of  speaking  thoroughly  characteristic  of  the 
Lollards.  In  all  the  remains  w^e  have  of  them 
the  word  "  gospel  "  scarcely  ever  occurs,  though 
it  was  so  constantly  on  the  lips  of  the  first  Pro- 
testants a  few  years  later.  With  the  Lollards, 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments  were  "the  Old 
and  New   Law."     More   than   a  hundred   years 


MOKE  OF  THE  JUSTFAST  MEN    129 

before,  Knyghton  tells  us  (col.  1664)  that  they 
were  constantly  speaking  of  "  Goddislawe,"  and 
asserting"  that  no  one  was  acceptable  to  God  who 
did  not  keep  it  as  they  set  it  forth. 

Africk's  cousin  Widmore  (the  name  is  also 
spelt  "  Widemore  "  and  "  Wigmer  ")  was  a 
farmer,  living  perhaps  at  the  hamlet  now  called 
Widmer  End.  Thomas  Widmore  had  married 
another  sister  of  John  Phip,  so  that  he  was  really 
Africk's  brother-in-law.  His  son  Thomas  and 
his  wife  also  came  under  suspicion.  "  Clerk  the 
elder"  is  Thomas  Gierke,  who,  with  his  son  of 
the  same  name,  is  several  times  named.  To  the 
house  of  one  of  these  Clerkes  there  came  one 
day  a  tinker  from  Wycombe,  called  Christopher, 
with  whom  he  had  some  vague  discourse  about 
the  ' '  poverty  ' '  and  ' '  misgovernment  ' '  of  the 
times.  A  week  after,  when  the  tinker  came 
again  on  his  round,  he  asked  Clerke  "  how  his 
last  communication  with  him  did  please  him?" 
"  Well,"  was  Clerke's  reply,  "  I  know  more, 
and  can  tell  you  more,"  said  Christopher.  "  See 
that  you  believe  in  God  in  heaven ;  for  there 
be  many  Gods  on  earth,  and  there  is  but  one 
God;  and  He  was  once  here,  and  was  ill  dealt 
with,  and  will  come  no  more  till  the  day  of 
doom."  He  went  on  to  say  that  "  the  sacrament 
of  the  altar  was  a  holy  thing,  but  not  the  flesh 
and  blood  of  Christ  that  was  born  of  the  Virgin." 
He  begged  him  not  to  divulge  his  words  to  his 
wife,  wdiose  brother  was  a  priest.  Not 
long    after,    the    priest    got    his   sister    to    buy 


130  THE    LOLLAEDS 

him  some  "  singing  bread  "  (sacramental  wafers). 
It  was  damp,  and  the  priest  was  laying  it  out 
to  dry,  when  his  brother-in-law  ventured  to 
suggest,  "If  every  one  of  these  is  a  god,  then 
there  are  many  gods."  "  Till  the  holy  words 
are  spoken  over  it,"  said  the  priest,  "it  is  of 
no  power;  and  then  it  is  very  God,  flesh  and 
blood  ;  but  it  is  not  meet  for  any  layman  to  speak 
of  these  things."  The  next  time  Christopher 
came  to  Hughenden,  Gierke  told  him  of  the  talk 
he  had  had  with  his  brother-in-law,  and  asked  his 
opinion  of  the  matter.  The  account  closes  with 
the  tinker's  answer.  "  Let  every  man  say  what 
they  will,  but  you  shall  find  it  as  I  show  you; 
and  if  you  will  take  labour  to  come  to  my  house, 
I  will  show  you  further  proof  of  it."  Other 
persons  who  had  come  under  suspicion  at 
Hughenden  were  Eoger  Parker,  who  was  now- 
dead  ;  Lawrence  Heme ;  the  wife  of  Thomas 
Potter,  and  three  men  named  Hobbes  or  Hobs. 

In  the  town  of  High  Wycombe  we  read  of  no 
accused  persons  except  the  tinker  Christopher. 
But  at  West  Wycombe  there  was  Elizabeth,  the 
wife  of  Richard  Dean,  who  had  sometimes 
attended  the  "conventicle"  at  Amersham  ;  and 
also  William  Hobbes,  who  had  been  denounced 
as  a  heretic  by  his  brother  Eadulph  to  Bishop 
Smith,  but  had  escaped  at  the  intercession  of  the 
parish  priest.  In  connection  with  him  we  read 
of  Oliver  Smith  and  his  wife  of  "  Newline  " — 
possibly  Newland,  adjoining  the  town  of  High 
Wycombe.     In  the  remote  village  of  Hambleden, 


MOKE  OF  THE  JUSTFAST  MEN    131 

almost  at  the  south-west  corner  of  the  county, 
John  Home,  a  carpenter,  was  believed  to  be  a 
"  known  man." 

In  the  town  of  Marlow  several  persons  were 
suspected  of  disaffection  to  the  church.  Thomas 
Eave,  a  rough  fellow,  something  of  the  type  of 
Aylward,  the  Henley  blacksmith  of  sixty  years 
before,  had  been  cited  before  Bishop  Smith,  who 
ordered  him  to  do  penance  at  Wycombe,  and  to 
go  on  pilgrimage  to  Lincoln.  At  Wycombe,  he 
"  bound  his  faggot  with  a  silken  lace,"  no  doubt 
out  of  bravado.  On  his  w^ay  to  Lincoln,  he  called 
some  other  pilgrims  w^hom  he  met  returning  from 
the  shrine  of  Sir  John  Shorne  "fools  and  idola- 
ters." Passing  a  ruined  chapel,  he  sneered  at 
it  as  "a  fair  milk-house  down;"  and  in  the 
cathedral  itself  he  behaved  with  disgusting 
indecency.  Not  the  most  creditable  type  of  Lol- 
lard, it  must  be  admitted. 

Others  detected  at  Marlow  were  John  Gray 
(whose  name  is  still  borne  by  a  local  Noncon- 
formist family  of  old  standing) ;  "  Ward's  wife  ;" 
and  also  John  Simons,  or  Symonds,  and  his  wife 
Matild.  The  latter  couple  deposed  to  a  prediction 
uttered  in  their  house  by  a  certain  John  Hacker 
(the  name  is  also  spelt  Hakker  and  Haggar). 
This  man,  who  lived  in  Coleman  Street,  London, 
was  mentioned  by  several  witnesses,  and  seems 
to  have  been  one  of  the  wandering  Lollard 
teachers.  The  priests,  he  said,  would  bear  rule  for 
a  time,  but  would  then  be  put  down,  with  their 
"  false  gods."     "  And  after  that  we  shall  know 


132  THE    LOLLAEDS 

more,  and  then  shall  be  a  merry  world."  The 
people  here  would  be  in  close  touch  with  Henley, 
that  ancient  seat  of  Lollardy,  if  not  of  Walden- 
sianism,  where  nearly  a  dozen  persons  were  now 
"detected." 

Wooburn,  as  the  bishop's  residence,  was  hkely 
to  be  well  guarded  against  heresy.  Yet  even  here 
"  the  wife  of  John  Scrivener,  smith,"  a  relation 
perhaps  of  the  Amersham  Scriveners,  was  under 
suspicion. 

At  Beaeonsfield ,  Eichard  White  and  his  son- 
in-law  Bennet  Ward  carried  on  the  uncouth  pro- 
cesses of  the  old  woollen  manufacture,  treading 
or  "  walking  "  the  cloth,  bleaching  it,  and 
teasing  it  with  teasel-heads  to  raise  a  nap  ;  unless 
indeed  they  had  set  up  one  of  the  fulling-mills 
which  were  then  looked  on  with  dislike  as  a 
new-fangled  innovation.  Both  of  them  came 
under  suspicion,  and  had  to  abjure.  Ward  had 
in  his  possession  the  Gospels  of  Matthew  and 
Mark,  and  the  Ten  Commandments  in  English. 
He  had  sheltered  one  Thomas  Pope  in  his  house, 
dnd  his  wife  and  daughter  had  been  heard  to  say 
that  Pope  was  "  the  devoutest  man  that  ever  was 
in  their  house,  for  he  would  sit  reading  in  his 
book  till  midnight  many  times."  One  John 
Marston  testified  that  Ward  had  said,  "It 
booteth  no  man  to  pray  to  Our  Lady,  nor  to  any 
Baint  or  angel  in  heaven,  but  to  God  only,  for 
they  have  no  power  of  man's  soul." 

In  the  adjoining  parish  of  Penn,  Edmund  Hill 
and  John   Frier  are  named.       Frier,  who   had 


MORE  OF  THE  JUSTFAST  MEN    133 

taught  the  lad  WilUam  Littlepage  the  command- 
ments in  English,  was  a  servant  of  the  Penn 
family,  the  original  stock  of  the  Wiltshire  house 
from  which,  in  the  next  century,  sprang  the  great 
Admiral,  and  his  son,  the  founder  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. 

In  the  flat  district  at  the  south  of  the  county, 
with  its  green  meadows  and  elm-fringed  lanes, 
numerous  persons  were  "  detected."  At  Dorney, 
the  charge  of  heresy  was  laid  against  John  Sche- 
pard  and  Eobert  Pvave,  perhaps  the  "  Father 
Eeive  "  who  had  been  branded  in  1506.  For 
words  spoken  not  lo^ig  after  that  against  tran- 
substantiation  anc  image-worship,  he  was  now 
cited,  and  ultimately  burned.  One  charge  against 
him  was  that,  on  hearing  "  a  certain  bell  in  an 
uplandish  steeple,"  the  old  man  had  said,  "  A 
fair  bell  to  hang  about  any  cow's  neck  in  this 
town!" 

At  Chalvey  one  Matild  Philby  was  accused. 
At  Horton  Robert  Freeman,  the  parish  priest, 
had  been  seen  reading  a  suspicious-looking  book, 
which,  on  seeing  himself  observed,  he  closed  and 
took  to  his  room.  In  the  adjoining  parish  of  Iver, 
the  priest  appears  in  a  less  creditable  light.  The 
wife  of  Richard  Carder,  a  man  who  was  cited 
for  heresy,  confessed  that  her  husband's  suspi- 
cions as  to  her  relations  with  the  vicar  were  too 
well  founded,  and  Longland  forbade  her  entering 
the  vicarage  in  future.  It  would  seem  that  one 
Jenkin  Butler  had  been  cited  for  heresy  from 
this  village.     Carder  asserted  that  the  Bishop  had 


134  THE    LOLLAEDS 

wronged  Butler,  and  said  that  he  would  have 
warned  him  had  he  known  of  his  intended  arrest. 
He  boasted  that  he  was  ready  to  face  burning 
for  his  views  ;  but  his  courage  failed  him  when 
ifc  came  to  the  test,  and  his  name  appears  among 
the  list  of  those  who  recanted.  A  more  conspic- 
uous "  known  man  "  in  this  parish  was  Eobert 
Durdant,  several  times  referred  to  as  "  Old  Dur- 
dant  of  Tver  Court."  The  family  was  an  old 
one  in  the  district,  and  had  held  land  in  Deiiham 
parish  from  1259  to  1414.  Robert  seems  to  have 
been  a  substantial  yeoman-farmer,  and  had  a  son 
Nicholas,  living  at  Staines,  and  another,  Davy, 
at  Ankerwyke.  On  one  occasion,  when  his  sons 
and  their  wives  had  been  dining  with  him,  he 
ordered  a  boy  who  was  present  to  leave  the  room, 
"  that  he  should  not  hear  and  tell,"  and  "  did 
recite  certain  places  unto  them  out  of  the  Epistles 
of  St.  Paul  and  of  the  Gospels."  At  another 
time,  a  number  of  friends  were  present  at  the 
marriage  of  his  daughter.  After  the  wedding 
they  met  in  the  barn,  and  heard  an  Epistle  of 
Paul  read.  Among  the  guests  were  some  with 
whom  we  have  met  before — Henry  Miller,  the 
Kentish  wire-drawer;  Mistress  Barret,  the  gold- 
smith's wife  from  London  ;  and  Isabel  Harding. 
They  "  well  liked  the  reading,  but  especially 
Durdant,  and  commended  the  same." 

Tver  Court  was  evidently  a  favourite  resort  of  the 
"  known  men."  All  one  night  in  1518,  several 
of  them,  from  Uxbridge  and  the  neighbourhood, 
sat  up  there  hearing  "  a  great  book  of  heresy," 


MOEE  OF  THE  JUSTFAST  MEN    135 

apparently  Wycliffe's  New  Testament,  read  by 
Richard  Butler.  Durdant  implored  them  not  to 
divulge  the  fact  of  his  possessing  the  book,  "  lest 
he  should  be  burned  for  the  same;"  but  the 
matter  got  abroad,  and  Butler  and  others  were 
cited  before  Fitzjames,  the  Bishop  of  London 
(Foxe,  iv.  178).  A  large  number  of  persons  were 
now  detected  at  Uxbridge.  Some  of  these  had 
been  among  Colet's  hearers  at  St.  Paul's. 

"  Old  Durdant  "  was  once  asked  by  a  woman 
who  seems  to  have  been  in  his  employment, 
"  Joan  Cocks,  the  wife  of  Eobert  Wywood,"  (the 
maiden  name  being  retained  as  in  the  old  Scot- 
tish custom),  "that  he,  being  a  known  man, 
would  teach  her  some  knowledge  of  God's  law," 
which  he  appears  to  have  done.  Another  ghmpse 
is  given  us  of  one  John  Gierke  of  Denham,  who 
was  eager  to  learn  from  the  ' '  known  men  ' '  of 
Uxbridge  and  the  neighbourhood.  One  of  these, 
Richard  Vulford  of  Euislip,  came  by  one  day  just 
as  Gierke  had  made  a  weele  (a  soil;  of  osier  trap 
for  catching  fish).  "  Now  you  have  made  your 
weele,"  asked  Vulford,  "  can  the  weele  turn 
again  and  make  you?"  "No,"  replied  Gierke. 
"  Even  so  hath  God  made  all  priests,  as  thou 
hast  made  the  weele,"  said  Vulford;  "and  how- 
can  they  turn  again  and  make  God?" 

A  certain  Robert  Pope,  who  had  fled  from 
Amersham  at  the  time  of  the  Gi'eat  Abjuration, 
and  was  now  living  at  West  Hendred  in  Berk- 
shire, was  examined  by  the  court  of  inquiry.  He 
not  only  denounced  a  number  of  persons  in  Bug- 


136  THE    LOLLARDS 

kinghamshire  (including  his  own  father  Edward 
Pope  of  Little  Missenden)  but  a  number  of  persons 
in  the  district  in  which  he  was  now  living  ;  and 
this  wholesale  delation  was  confirmed  by  nume- 
rous witnesses,  w^ho  "  detected  "  numerous 
persons  at  Newbury,  Hungerford,  Wantage, 
Burford,  Witney,  and  other  places  in  Berkshire 
and  Oxfordshire. 

The  "  known  men  "  were  largely  poor  and 
ignorant  folk  ;  they  shared  in  many  of  the  faults 
and  errors  of  the  time ;  but  their  faces  were 
towards  the  light,  and  it  was  in  their  lowly  homes, 
rather  than  in  the  palace  or  the  cathedral,  that 
the  promise  and  the  potency  of  the  coming  change 
really  lay. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  ARGUMENT  OF  FIRE  AND  FAGGOT 

We  may  conceive  something  of  the  anguish,  the 
terror,  and  the  shame,  which  must  have  been 
caused  by  the  pitiless  inquisition  of  Longland. 
Some  fled  rather  than  betray  their  loved  ones  ; 
others,  it  it  said,  died  of  grief  and  remorse  after 
giving  evidence  ;  and  many  lives  must  have  been 
clouded  ever  afterwards.  As  the  Bishop's  "  sum- 
ners  "  went  to  and  fro  among  the  villages  and 
farms,  they  met  with  anything  but  a  favourable 
reception,  and  it  would  seem  even  with  forcible 
opposition  in  some  cases.  But  Windsor  was  close 
at  hand  ;  and  Longland  obtained  a  letter  from  the 
King,  which  is  given  by  Foxe  as  follows  : — 

"  Henry  the  Eighth,  by  the  grace  of  God  King 
of  England  and  of  France,  Lord  of  Ireland, 
Defender  of  the  Faith;  to  all  mayors,  sheriffs, 
bailiffs  and  constables,  and  to  all  other  our  offi- 
cers, ministers,  and  subjects,  these  our  letters 
hearing  or  seeing,  and  to  every  of  them,  greeting. 
Forasmuch  as  the  right  reverend  father  in  God, 
our  trusty  and  well-beloved  counsellor,  the  Bishop 
of  Lincoln,  hath  now  within  his  diocese  no  small 

137 


138  THE    LOLLARDS 

number  of  heretics,  as  it  is  thought,  to  his  no 
httle  discomfort  and  heaviness  :  we  therefore, 
being  in  will  and  mind  safely  to  provide  for  the 
said  right  reverend  father  in  God  and  his  officers, 
that  neither  they  nor  any  of  them  shall  bodily 
be  hurt  or  damaged  by  any  of  the  said  heretics 
or  their  fautors,  in  the  executing  of  justice  unto 
the  said  heretics,  according  to  the  laws  of  Holy 
Church,  do  straitly  command  you  and  every  of 
you,  as  ye  tender  our  high  displeasure,  to  be 
aiding,  helping,  and  assisting  the  said  right  reve- 
rend father  in  God  and  his  said  officers,  in  the 
executing  of  justice  in  the  premises,  as  they  or 
any  of  them  shall  require  you  so  to  do  ;  not  failing 
to  accomplish  our  commandment  and  pleasure  in 
the  premises,  as  ye  intend  to  please  us,  and  will 
answer  to  the  contrary  at  your  uttermost  perils. 

"  Given  under  our  signet  at  our  Castle  of 
Windsor,  the  twentieth  day  of  October,  the 
thirteenth  year  of  our  reign,  1521." 

A  curious  point  arises  here,  supposing  the  date 
to  be  correctly  given.  The  bull  by  which  Leo 
X.  conferred  on  Henry  VIIT.  the  title  of 
"  Defender  of  the  Faith  "  bears  date  Oct.  11th, 
1521.  A  courier  could  scarcely  have  reached 
Windsor  from  Rome  in  nine  days  ;  but  the  King 
may  have  received  private  information  of  the 
intended  despatch  of  the  bull. 

Some  in  the  long  hst  of  persons  detected  were 
now  dead ;  others  had  disappeared  ;  and  some 
may  have  satisfied  the  Bishop  of  their  innocence 
of  the  charges  brought  against  them.       But  a 


FIEE    AND   FAGGOT  139 

large  number  were  abjured,  being  obliged  to  take 
an  oath  on  the  Gospels  that  they  "  did  utterly 
and  voluntarily  renounce,  detest,  and  forsake, 
and  never  should  hold  hereafter  these  or  any  like 
opinions,  contrary  to  the  determination  of  the 
holy  mother  church  of  Kome  ;  and  further,  that 
they  should  detect  unto  their  ordinary  whomso- 
ever they  should  see  or  suspect  hereafter  to  teach, 
hold,  or  maintain  the  same." 

Foxe's  account,  now  that  he  is  no  longer  fol- 
lowing a  document,  becomes  confused  again.  He 
gives  a  list  of  forty-two  men  and  eight  women 
who  recanted,  but  implies  that  the  list  is  not 
complete.  Some,  he  says,  were  condemned  to 
perpetual  penance  in  various  monasteries,  at  Ash- 
ridge  and  Notley  in  Buckinghamshire,  at  Abing- 
don in  Berkshire,  at  St.  Frideswide's,  Osney, 
Thame,  Bicester,  and  Eynsham  in  Oxfordshire. 
Here,  it  seems,  they  were  kept  in  a  kind  of 
slavery,  and  never  allowed  to  pass  the  precincts 
of  the  monasteries.  Others  retained  their  liberty 
on  condition  of  a  humiliating  penance,  to  be  per- 
formed "  under  pain  of  relapse."  The  penance 
exactly  corresponds  with  that  prescribed  in  extant 
diocesan  registers  of  the  period.  They  were  to 
go  thrice  round  the  market-place  of  some  town, 
on  a  market-day,  and  then  stand  a  quarter  of 
an  hour  on  the  highest  step  of  the  market-cross, 
with  faggots  on  their  shoulders,  to  go  before  a 
solemn  procession  to  the  church  on  a  Sunday, 
again  carrying  faggots,  and  kneel  before  the  high 
altar  all  the  high  mass  time.  They  were  to  repeat 


10 


140  THE    LOLLAKDS 

the  same  penance  in  their  own  parish  churches, 
and  once  in  a  general  procession  elsewhere,  and 
to  bear  a  faggot,  if  required,  at  the  burning  of 
a  heretic.  Uxbridge,  and  Burford  in  Oxfordshire, 
were  especially  named  as  scenes  of  these  melan- 
choly processions.  The  penitents  were  also  to 
fast  every  Friday  on  bread  and  ale,  and  on  the 
eve  of  Corpus  Christi  upon  bread  and  water. 
They  were  to  repeat  "Our  Lady's  Psalter" 
every  Sunday  and  Friday  during  life.  They 
were  ' '  never  to  haunt  again  together  with 
any  suspected  person  or  persons,  unless  it  were 
in  the  open  market,  fair,  church,  or  common  inn 
or  alehouse,  where  other  people  might  see  their 
conversation."  Lastly,  it  was  ordered  "  that 
neither  they,  nor  any  of  them,  shall  hide  their 
mark  upon  their  cheek,  neither  with  hat,  cap, 
hood,  kerchief,  napkin,  or  none  otherwise,  or 
shall  suffer  their  beards  to  grow  past  fourteen 
days."  It  is  not  clear  from  this  whether  the 
cruel  punishment  of  branding  was  revived  at  this 
time,  or  whether  the  reference  is  only  to  those 
who  had  been  branded  in  1506. 

Foxe  next  gives  the  names  of  six  persons  who, 
having  previously  abjured,  were  now  condemned 
for  relapse,  and  handed  over  to  the  secular  power 
to  be  burned.  These  are  Thomas  Bernard,  James 
Morden,  Bobert  Eave,  John  Scrivener,  Thomas 
Holmes,  and  Joan  Norman. 

We  have  already  seen  reason  for  believing  that 
this,  and  not  either  of  the  dates  which  Foxe  gives 
elsewhere,  was  the  real  time  of  Bernard  and  Mor- 


FIEE    AND   FAGGOT  141 

den's  death.  With  regard  to  Holmes  (who,  it 
will  be  remembered,  had  turned  informer),  and 
to  Joan  Norman,  Foxe  seems  a  little  doubtful 
if  the  sentence  was  actually  carried  out.  There 
can  be  no  doubt,  however,  that  John  Scrivener 
suffered  at  this  time,  and  with  him  "Father" 
Eave  of  Dorney.  Foxe  elsewhere  asserts  (iii. 
398)  that  Longland  was  present  in  person,  and 
preached  a  violent  sermon  before  the  stake,  in 
which  he  declared  that  "  whoever  they  were  that 
did  bat  move  their  lips  in  reading  of  the  Scrip- 
tures in  English  were  damned  for  ever."  This 
seems  scarcely  credible  ;  but  Erasmus  and  others 
give  us  almost  as  glaring  instances  of  the  fanati- 
cal objection  to  a  vernacular  translation  on  the 
part  of  the  clerics  of  the  day. 

There  was  a  close  adherence  in  the  methods  of 
the  execution  to  the  hideous  precedents  of  Tyls- 
w^orth's  burning.  There  was  the  procession  of 
faggot-bearers  up  the  hill,  and  the  same  refine- 
ment of  cruelty  in  forcing  John  Scrivener's 
children  to  set  fire  to  their  father's  pyre,  as  in 
the  case  of  Tylsworth's  daughter.  But  this  time, 
as  Fuller  tells  us  in  his  Chiircli  History, 
the  infamy  was  not  allowed  to  pass  without  a 
vigorous  protest.  The  clerical  party,  he  says, 
defended  the  act  by  quoting  Deut.  xiii.  6-9  ;  "  If 
thy  brother,  the  son  of  thy  mother,  or  thy  son, 
or  thy  daughter,  or  the  wife  of  thy  bosom,  or  thy 
friend,  which  is  as  thine  own  soul,  entice  thee 
secretly,  saying,  '  Let  us  go  and  worship  other 
gods,' thou  shalt  surely  kill  him  ;  thine 


142  THE    LOLLAKDS 

hand  shall  be  first  upon  him  to  put  him  to  death, 
and  then  the  hand  of  all  the  people."  But,  as 
Fuller  points  out,  nothing  is  said  of  father  or 
mother  here ;  while  even  by  the  laws  of  pagan 
Rome  the  evidence  of  the  child  could  not  be 
received  against  the   parent. 


CHAPTER  XV 

LOLLARDY  PASSING  INTO  PROTESTANTISM 

After  the  death  of  the  Amersham  martyrs  in 
1521,  a  period  of  comparative  freedom  from  per- 
secution ensued  throughout  England.  One  man 
suffered  at  Coventry  the  same  year ;  but  after 
this  no  other  seems  to  have  endured  the  "  trial 
of  fire  and  faggot  "  until  1530. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  face  of  affairs  was  being 
wholly  changed.  While  Henry  was  warring  with 
France,  and  Wolsey  was  taxing  the  country  to 
the  utmost  limit  of  endurance,  and  intriguing  for 
the  Papal  tiara,  the  writings  of  Luther  and  his 
fellow-reformers  were  being  brought  into  Eng- 
land, and  Tyndale  was  translating  the  New 
Testament  at  Cologne  and  Worms,  and  afterwards 
part  of  the  Old  at  Antwerp.  The  vigilance  of 
the  authorities  proved  all  in  vain  to  hinder  the 
circulation  of  the  forbidden  book.  The  parchment 
scroll  of  the  Lollard  was  gradually  being  super- 
seded by  the  quaint  black-letter  volume  of  the 
Gospeller,  with  its  more  modernised  version.  The 
better  day  for  which  the  Lollards  had  long  been 
looking,  and  the  coming  of  which  some  of  them 
had  vaguely  predicted,  seemed  to  be  dawning  at 
143 


144  THE    LOLLARDS 

last.  A  strong  reforming  party  was  arising  among 
the  clergy,  and  was  to  some  extent  favoured  by 
Archbishop  Warham. 

In    nothing  was    the   change  in    affairs    more 
noticeable  than  in  the  neglected  condition  of  the 
religious  houses.     Men  had  grown  tired  of  en- 
dowing monks  who  were  despised  as  lazy,  and 
often  believed  to  be  immoral.    The  church-tower 
rose  in  all  the  beauty  of  the  Perpendicular  Gothic  ; 
the    priests    ministered    in    gorgeous   vestments, 
singing  masses  for  the  souls  of  pious  donors  who 
had  bequeathed  legacies  for  the  purpose,  and  for 
lights  to  burn  perpetually   before  the   altar,   for 
the  repose  of  their  souls.       Meanwhile,  in   the 
ruinous  buildings  of  the  neighbouring  priory,  two 
or  three  monks  were  often  all  that  remained  of 
the  goodly  brotherhood  of  days  gone  by. 

Of  the  religious  houses  in  Buckinghamshire, 
since  the  alien  priories  were  suppressed,  those 
at  Chetwode  and  Brill  had  been  annexed  to  Notley 
Abbey  during  the  Wars  of  the  Roses.  Luffield 
had  been  suppressed  on  account  of  its  poverty  in 
1494.  And  now,  in  1524,  Ravenstone,  Tickford, 
and  Bradwell,  having  all  become  grievously 
decayed,  were  dissolved  by  a  Papal  Bull,  and 
their  revenues  were  given  to  Wolsey  in  aid  of 
his  great  foundation  of  Cardinal  College  (now 
Christchurch)  in  Oxford.  Of  Bradwell  we  read 
that  the  buildings  w^ere  "  in  decay  for  lack  of 
pointing,  tiling,  walling,  and  thatching,"  and 
"  the  chancel  roof  of  very  evil  timber."  The 
fish-ponds,  it  is  added,  "  now  be  wasted  and  little 


PASSING  INTO  PROTESTANTISM    145 

or  no  fish  therein  :"  and  while  the  Commissioners 
reported  that  the  chancel  and  aisles  might  be 
repaired,  they  added,  "  and  right  necessary  is  it 
shortly  to  be  done,  for  the  salvation  of  the  tile 
and  timber."    (Dugdale,  Monasticon,  iv.   510). 

Wolsey's  principal  agent  in  the  suppression  of 
these  priories  was  the  man  w^ho  was  to  give  the 
death-blow  to  the  old  monastic  system  in  Eng- 
land— the  Malleus  Monachonim,  Thomas  Crom- 
well. In  1527  the  question  of  the  divorce  from 
Queen  Catharine  was  raised.  In  1529  came  the 
fall  of  Wolsey,  and  in  the  following  year  his 
death.  In  1531  Henry  cast  the  die,  and  declared 
himself  "  Supreme  Head  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land." The  casting  off  of  the  Papal  supremacy 
had  largely  realised  the  political  portion  of 
Wycliffe's  aims  ;  but  Henry  was  as  little  as  ever 
disposed  to  abandon  the  main  features  of  Eomanist 
doctrine,  and  after  Wolsey's  fall  the  policy  of 
persecution  was  resumed  as  bitterly  as  before. 

An  extract  given  by  Foxe  (iv.  584)  from  the 
Ijincoln  Register  of  1530  gives  an  interesting 
glimpse  of  the  manner  in  which  Lollardy  was 
passing  into  Protestantism.  A  little  company 
had  gathered  in  the  house  of  John  Taylor  of 
Hughenden,  to  hear  a  preacher  from  London,  one 
Nicholas  Field,  who  had  been  in  Germany,  and 
could  tell  them  something  of  the  new  Reformers. 
It  was  probably  by  night,  but  some  of  those  pre- 
sent had  come  for  miles  across  the  country.  There 
were  Thomas  Hawks,  and  Thomas  Clerk  the 
younger,    of    Hughenden ;    Robert    Hawes    and 


146  THE    LOLLARDS 

Richard  Dean,  of  West  Wycombe;  Thomas 
Hern,  of  "  Cobshill  "  (Coleshill?) ;  Wilham 
Hawks,  of  Chesham ;  WilHam  Wingrave, 
and  others.  Of  these,  Thomas  Clerk  and 
the  wife  of  Richard  Dean  had  been  under  sus- 
picion in  1521.  Field  read  a  portion  of  Scripture, 
probably  out  of  Tyndale's  version,  of  which  the 
New  Testament  had  reached  England  in  1526. 
Perhaps  some  of  the  company  had  never  seen  a 
printed  Bible  before.  Then  he  addressed  them, 
telling  them  that  "  they  that  went  on  pilgrimages 
were  accursed,"  and  that  "  it  booted  not  to  pray 
to  images,  for  they  were  but  stocks  made  of 
wood,  and  could  not  help  a  man."  He  denounced 
saints'  days,  and  also  fasting  days,  without  which 
he  found  that  they  got  on  very  well  "  beyond 
the  sea  in  Almany."  It  is  curious  to  note  that 
he  made  an  exception  in  favour  of  fasting  on  the 
"  Imbring  "  (Ember)  Days.  He  spoke  next  of 
the  uselessness  of  offerings.  One  of  the  company 
objected  that  "  they  maintained  God's  service." 
"Nay,"  said  Nicholas,  "they  maintain  great 
houses  as  abbeys  and  the  like."  He  went  on  to 
speak  against  Latin  prayers,  and  recited  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  the  Hail  Mary,  and  the  Creed  in 
English  ;  after  which  he  proceeded  to  denounce 
the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation.  One  of  those 
present  probably  betrayed  the  others,  for  all  of 
them,  including  Field,  were  "examined,  excom- 
municated, and  abjured  "  (not  "  burned,"  as  Mr. 
Pattison,  by  an  odd  blunder,  asserts  in  his  Reli- 
gious Topography).     The  sweeping  persecutions 


PASSING  INTO  PROTESTANTISM    147 

of  nine  years  before  had  evidently  been  far  from 
extinguishing  the  remains  of  Lollardy  in  the 
district. 

Another  interesting  case  (Foxe,  iv.  583)  is  that 
of  a  young  man  named  John  Eyburn,  Uving  at 
"  Eoshborough  "  (Eisborough).  He  had  met 
with  a  priest  named  Thomas  Lound,  who  had 
spent  two  years  at  Wittenberg,  and  who  was 
afterwards  cast  into  the  Fleet  Prison  in  London. 
Eyburn  had  eargerly  adopted  the  reformed  doc- 
trines, but  his  family  were  still  devoted  to  those 
of  Eome.  His  sister  Elizabeth,  coming  to  him 
on  the  eve  of  the  Assumption,  found  him  at 
supper  "with  butter  and  eggs,"  and  was  horri- 
fied at  his  inviting  her  to  join  him.  "  God  never 
made  such  fasting  days,"  said  John;  "but  you 
are  so  far  in  limbo  patrum  that  you  can  never 
turn  again."  At  another  time  she  spoke  of  going 
on  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Eood  of  Wendover. 
"  You  do  wrong,"  said  John  ;  "for  there  is  never 
a  step  that  you  set  in  going  on  pilgrimage  but 
you  go  to  the  devil ;  and  you  go  to  church  to 
worship  what  the  priest  doth  hold  above  his  head, 
which  is  but  bread,  and  if  you  cast  it  to  the 
mouse,  he  will  eat  it;  and  never  will  I  believe 
that  the  priest  hath  power  to  make  his  Lord." 
He  admitted  that  he  kneeled  down  at  the  ele- 
vation of  the  host,  but  said  "  he  had  no  devotion 
nor  believed  in  the  sacrament."  "  The  priests 
do  naught,"  said  he,  "  for  they  should  say  their 
service  in  English,  that  every  man  may  know  it, 
for  if  we  had   our   Paternoster   in   English,    we 


148  THE    LOLLAEDS 

would  say  it  nine  times  against  one  now."  He 
had  firmly  grasped  the  doctrine  of  justification 
by  faith,  on  which  the  Lollard  view  had  been 
somewhat  vague.  "  The  blood  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,"  he  said,  "  hath  made  satisfaction  for  all 
ill  deeds  that  are  done  or  shall  be  done ;  and 
therefore  it  is  no  need  to  go  on  pilgrimage." 
"  The  Pope's  authority  and  pardon  cannot  help 
man's  soul,  and  it  is  but  cast-away  money  that 
is  given  for  pardon,  for  if  we  ask  pardon  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  He  will  give  us  pardon  every 
day."  At  another  time  John  was  with  his  sister 
Alice  "  in  a  field  called  Brimmer's  Close,"  a  name 
which  is  still  preserved  in  the  parish  of  Prince's 
Risborough,  where  we  have  Brimmer's  Farm  and 
Brimmer's  Hill,  not  far  from  Whiteleaf  Cross.  ' 'A 
time  shall  come,"  he  said  to  her,  "  when  no 
elevation  shall  be  made."  "  And  what  service 
shall  we  have  then?"  she  asked.  "  That  service," 
replied  John,  "that  we  have  now."  He  was  also 
charged  with  "  having  Jesus'  Gospel  in  English," 
and  with  having  been  present  in  John  Taylor's 
house  at  Hughenden,  when  one  John  Simonds 
"  read  to  them  a  lecture  out  of  the  Gospel,  of  the 
passion  of  Christ,  the  space  of  two  hours."  This 
may  have  been  the  John  Simons,  of  Marlow, 
accused  in  1521. 

Ryburn's  two  sisters,  his  father,  and  even  his 
wife,  were  called  before  Bishop  Longland,  and 
compelled  to  depose  against  the  outspoken  Gos- 
peller. It  gives  us  a  sad  idea  of  the  domestic 
divisions  of  the  times.     "A  man's  foes"  were 


PASSING  INTO  PROTESTANTISM    149 

indeed  "  they  of  his  own  household."  Eyburn's 
father  also  "  detected  "  John  Eaton  of  Speen, 
and  Cicely  his  wife,  who  "  were  marked  of  cer- 
tain in  the  parish,  on  the  Sunday  last  past,  in 
the  sacring  time,  to  hold  down  their  heads,  and 
that  they  would  not  look  upon  the  sacrament." 
They  had  also  been  heard — heinous  offence  ! — to 
say,  "What  a  clampering  of  bells  is  here!"  as 
they  stood  in  a  butcher's  shop  while  the  bells 
were  ringing  for  Holy  Cross  Day. 

John  Simonds,  the  reader  just  now  mentioned, 
was  himself  cited.  He  gloried  in  having  "  con- 
verted eight  priests  to  his  doctrines,  and  holpen 
two  or  three  friars  out  of  their  orders."  He  was 
charged  with  defending  the  marriage  of  the  clergy, 
and  also  with  saying,  "  Men  do  walk  all  day  in 
purgatory  in  this  world,  and  when  they  depart 
out  of  this  world,  there  are  but  two  ways,  either 
to  hell  or  heaven." 

Under  the  next  year  (1531)  we  find  a  curious 
passage  in  the  first  edition  of  Foxe  (ed.  1563, 
page  490).  It  may  best  be  given  in  the  quaint 
original  spelling  : — 

"  The  Storie  of  a  certaine  olde  man  of  Bucking- 
ham   Shy  re. 

"  I  have  found  in  a  certaine  place  mention  to 
be  made  of  a  certaine  olde  man,  which  for  eatyng 
of  Bacon  in  the  Ijcnt  (dwelling  in  the  countie  of 
Buckingham)  was  condempned  to  the  fyre  and 
burned,  in  this  yeare  of  our  Lord  1631.  As 
touching  his  name  and  other  circumstances  which 
perteine  unto  the  true  setting  fourth  of  the  his- 


160  THE    LOLLARDS 

tories,  we  cannot  fynde  or  understande  any  more. 
Kotwithstandyng  I  have  thought  good  not  to 
pass  over  this  matter  with  silence,  for  the  memo- 
riall  of  the  man  hymselfe,  albeit  I  know  not  his 
name." 

This  paragraph  is  omitted  in  the  later  editions. 
Whether  Foxe  found  it  erroneous,  or  whether  he 
left  it  out  to  make  room  for  more  important 
matter,  can  only  be  conjectured.  The  violation 
of  fasting  days  was  not  an  infrequent  ground  of 
prosecutions  for  heresy,  but  it  could  scarcely  have 
brought  a  man  to  the  stake. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  LAST  OF  THE  LOLLARD  MARTYRS 

One  of  those  who  had  had  to  do  penance  at 
Amersham,  both  in  1506  and  in  1521,  was  Thomas 
Harding.  In  1532,  the  date  at  which  we  have 
now  arrived,  he  was  an  aged  man;  and  his  out- 
spoken wife  AHce  was  probably  dead  by  this  time. 
He  continued  to  wear  the  green  badge  enjoined 
him  in  1521,  but  he  seems  to  have  been  allowed 
to  remove  from  Amersham  to  the  adjoining  parish 
of  Chesham,  where  a  farm  called  Dungrove  is 
pointed  out  by  local  tradition  as  his  abode.  It 
is  important  to  note  that  the  account  now  about 
to  be  quoted  from  Foxe  does  not  purport  to  be 
quoted  from  the  Diocesan  Register,  but  "  from 
the  written  testimony  of  certain  inhabitants  of 
Amersham."     Foxe  says  : — 

"  At  last  the  said  Harding,  in  the  year  above 
said  (1532),  about  the  Easter  hohdays,  when  the 
other  people  went  to  church  to  commit  their 
wonted  idolatry,  took  his  way  into  the  woods, 
there  solitarily  to  worship  the  true  living  God  in 
spirit  and  in  truth;  where,  as  he  was  occupied 
with  a  book  of  English  prayers,  leaning  or  sitting 
upon  a  stile  by  the  wood's  side,  it  chanced  that 
151 


152  THE    LOLLAKDS 

one  did  espy  him  where  he  was,  and  came  in 
great  haste  to  the  officers  of  the  town,  declaring 
that  he  had  seen  Harding  in  the  woods  looking 
on  a  book ;  whereupon  a  rude  rabble  of  them , 
like  mad  men,  ran  desperately  to  his  house  to 
search  for  books,  and  in  searching  went  so  nigh 
that  under  the  boards  of  his  floor  they  found  cer- 
tain English  books  of  Holy  Scripture.  Hereupon 
this  godly  father,  with  his  books,  was  brought 
before  John  Longland,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  then 
lying  at  Woburn,  who,  with  his  chaplains,  calling 
Father  Harding  to  examination,  began  to  reason 
with  him,  proceeding  rather  with  checks  and 
rebukes  than  with  any  sound  arguments.  Thomas 
Harding,  seeing  their  folly  and  rude  behaviour, 
gave  them  but  few  words,  but  fixing  his  trust 
and  care  in  the  Lord,  did  let  them  say  what  they 
would.  Thus  at  last  they  sent  him  to  the 
Bishop's  prison,  called  Little-ease,  where  he  did 
lie  with  hunger  and  pain  enough  for  a  certain 
space,  till  at  length  the  Bishop,  sitting  on  his 
tribunal  seat  like  a  potestate,  condemned  him  for 
relapse  to  be  burned  to  ashes,  committing  the 
charge  and  oversight  of  his  martyrdom  to  Kow- 
land  Messenger,  vicar  of  Great  Wycombe.  This 
Eowland,  at  the  day  appointed,  with  a  rabble 
of  others  like  to  himself,  brought  Father  Harding 
to  Chesham  again,  where,  the  next  day  after  his 
return,  the  said  Eowland  made  a  sermon  in  Ches- 
ham Church,  causing  Thomas  Harding  to  stand 
before  him  all  the  preaching  time  ;  which  sermon 
was    nothing   else    but    the   maintaining   of   the 


THE  LAST  LOLLAKD  MAETYES  153 

jurisdiction  of  the  Bishop  of  Eome  and  the  state 
of  his  apostolical  see,  with  the  idolatry,  fantsies, 
and  tradition  belonging  unto  the  same.  When 
the  sermon  was  ended,  Eowland  took  him  up  to 
the  high  altar,  and  asked  him  whether  he  believed 
that  in  the  bread,  after  the  consecration,  there 
remained  any  other  substance  than  the  substance 
of  Christ's  natural  body,  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary? 
To  this  Thomas  Harding  answered,  '  The  arti- 
cles of  our  belief  do  teach  us  that  our  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ  was  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  and 
that  He  suffered  death  under  Pilate,  and  rose 
from  death  the  third  day  ;  that  He  then  ascended 
into  heaven,  and  sitteth  on  the  right  hand  of 
God,  in  the  glory  of  the  Father.' 

"  Then  was  he  brought  into  a  man's  house  in 
the  town,  where  he  remained  all  night  in  prayer 
and  godly  meditations.  So  the  next  morning 
came  the  aforesaid  Eowland  again,  about  ten 
o'clock,  with  a  company  of  bills  and  staves,  to 
lead  this  godly  father  to  his  burning  ;  whom  a 
great  number  both  of  men  and  women  did  follow, 
of  whom  many  bewailed  his  death,  and  contrary, 
the  wicked  rejoiced  thereat.  He  was  brought 
forth,  having  thrust  into  his  hands  a  little  cross 
of  wood,  but  no  idol  upon  it.  Then  he  was 
chained  unto  the  stake,  and  desiring  the  people 
to  pray  for  him,  and  forgiving  all  his  enemies 
and  persecutors  he  commended  his  spirit  to  God, 
and  took  his  death  most  patiently  and  quietly, 
lifting  up  his  hands  to  heaven,  and  saying,  '  Jesus, 
receive  my  spirit.' 


154  THE    LOLLAEDS 

"  When  they  had  set  fire  on  him,  there  was 
one  that  threw  a  billet  at  him,  and  dashed  out 
his  brains ;  for  what  purpose  he  so  did  it  is  not 
known,  but,  as  it  was  supposed,  that  he  might 
have  forty  days  of  pardon,  as  the  proclamation 
was  made  at  the  burning  of  WilHam  Tylsworth 
above  mentioned,  where  proclamation  was  made 
the  same  time  that  whosoever  did  bring  a  faggot 
or  a  stake  to  the  burning  of  a  heretic  should  have 
forty  days  of  pardon ;  whereby  many  ignorant 
people  caused  their  children  to  bear  billets  and 
faggots  to  their  burning. 

"  In  fine,  when  the  sacrifice  and  burnt-offering 
of  this  godly  martyr  was  finished,  and  he  burnt 
to  ashes  in  the  dell  going  to  Botley,  at  the  north 
end  of  the  town  of  Chesham,  Rowland,  their  ruler 
of  the  roast,  commanding  silence,  and  thinking 
to  send  the  people  away  with  an  Ite  missa  est, 
with  a  loud  voice  said  to  the  people  these  words, 
not  advising  belike  what  his  tongue  did  speak, 
'  Good  people  !  when  ye  come  home  do  not  say 
that  you  have  been  at  the  burning  of  a  heretic, 
but  of  a  true  Christian  man  ;'  and  so  they  departed 
to  dinner,  Rowland,  with  the  rabble  of  other 
priests,  much  rejoicing  at  the  burning  of  this  good 
man.  After  dinner  they  went  to  church  to  even- 
song, because  it  was  Corpus  Christi  even,  where 
they  fell  to  singing  and  chanting,  with  ringing 
and  piping  of  the  organs.  Well  was  he  that  could 
reach  the  highest  note,  so  much  did  they  rejoice 
at  this  good  man's  burning.  He  should  have 
been    burned  on    the    Ascension    even,  but    the 


THE  LAST  LOLLAED  MAETYES  155 

matter  was  deferred  unto  the  even  of  Corpus 
Christi,  because  they  would  honour  their  '  bready 
Messias  '  with  a  bloody  sacrifice.  Thus  Thomas 
Harding  was  consumed  to  ashes,  he  being  of  the 
age  of  sixty  years  and  above." 

The  Rev.  A.  E.  Maddison,  in  the  paper  on 
"  Longland's  Register"  already  referred  to, 
says  :— 

"  The  register  contains  an  account  of  Harding's 
examination,  but  it  was  conducted,  not  by  the 
Bishop,  but  by  his  Vicar-General,  John 
Eayne,  assisted  by  Eobert,  x^bbot  of  Thame 
and  Suffragan  Bishop,  and  Thomas  Water- 
house,  Eector  of  Ashridge.  This  com- 
mission found  Harding  to  be  guilty  of  re- 
lapse into  heresy ;  but  Foxe  does  not  mention 
an  additional  circumstance  of  some  interest. 
According  to  the  register,  Harding  craved  for  the 
benefit  of  absolution,  and  thereupon  Rayne,  the 
Vicar-General,  pronounced  him  free  from  the 
greater  excommunication,  and  restored  to  the 
bosom  of  the  church.  Again,  the  certificate  sent 
to  the  King,  setting  forth  Harding  as  a  relapsed 
heretic,  states  that  he  had  confessed  his  heresy 
before  Bishop  Longland  at  the  Old  Temple,  Lon- 
don, not  at  Wooburn,  as  Foxe  asserts.  This  took 
place  on  the  6th  April,  but  the  fuller  examination 
before  Rayne  and  his  assessors  was  on  the  29th 
May.       Plainly,  then,  Foxe  is  not  in  harmony 

with  his  authorities, and  his  omission  of 

Harding's  recantation  renders  one  suspicious  of 
his  trustworthiness." 


11 


156  THE    LOLLARDS 

Considering  that  Foxe's  authority  was  not  the 
Register,  but  the  statements  of  the  Amersham 
folks,  the  discrepancies  cannot  be  said  to  be  of 
much  importance,  or  to  throw  discredit,  as  Mr. 
Maddison  seems  to  think  they  do,  on  Foxe's 
references  to  the  registers  elsewhere.  The  inac- 
curacies as  to  date  and  place  are  just  what  might 
be  expected  after  the  lapse  of  forty  years ;  and 
it  is  perfectly  natural  that  Harding's  neighbours 
should  have  slurred  over  the  fact  of  that  recan- 
tation, which,  if  it  lessens  his  glory,  throws  into 
clearer  relief  the  injustice  and  inhumanity  of  the 
authorities,  when  his  memory  had  come  to  be 
surrounded  with  a  sort  of  halo  of  saintship  among 
them.  It  may  even  be  that  the  recantation  affords 
the  real  explanation  of  Messenger's  supposed 
blunder  in  addressing  the  crowd. 

This  Rowland  Messenger  had  been  Vicar  of 
High  Wycombe  since  1511,  and  it  was  by  him 
that  the  beautiful  tower  of  All  Saints'  Church  in 
that  town,  "  the  cathedral  of  Bucks,"  was 
erected  in  1522.  He  was  also  Cardinal  Wolsey's 
clerk  of  the  works  at  the  erection  of  the  great 
tower  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford.  It  is  not  likely 
that  either  he  and  his  clerical  friends,  in  the  midst 
of  the  rejoicings  Foxe  describes,  or  Harding's 
old  neighbours,  as  they  made  their  way  home  to 
Amersham  across  the  fnrze-clad  common  of  Ches- 
ham  Bois,  and  through  the  beech-woods  in  all 
their  summer  splendour,  called  to  mind  the  fact 
that  the  persecution  of  the  Lollards  had  now 
lasted  exactly  a  century  and  a  half.     For  it  wa8 


THE  LAST  LOLLARD  MARTYRS  157 

on  Corpus  Christi  Day,  1382,  that  Philip  Repyng- 
don  preached  the  sermon  at  Oxford  which  led 
Archbishop  Courtenay  to  take  the  first  repressive 
measures  against  Lollardy.  And  in  a  certain 
sense,  the  story  of  that  persecution  ends  with  the 
burning  of  Harding,  who  may  fairly  be  called 
the  last  of  the  English  Lollard  martyrs — the  last, 
that  is,  of  purely  Lollard  training  and  sympathies. 
Not  only  so,  but  with  one  exception  (that  of 
John  Frith,  who  was  burned  in  Smithfield  in 
1533)  he  was  the  last  who  suffered  under  the  ex 
officio  power  of  the  bishops. 

The  spot  of  Harding's  martyrdom  is  still 
pointed  out  at  Chesham,  in  a  small  chalk-pit, 
not  far  from  the  police-station.  When  I  saw  it 
a  few  years  ago,  it  was  fenced  in,  and  occupied 
by  some  very  prosaic-looking  sheds.  On  the  hill 
to  the  south  of  the  town  is  a  stile,  leading  into 
a  wood  called  Hodge  Wood,  which  is  said  to  mark 
the  site  of  that  which  Harding  sat  to 
read.  Little  of  the  town  can  be  seen 
from  this  spot,  except  the  church  tower, 
so  that  the  view  may  be  practically  identical  with 
that  on  vViich  the  martyr's  e5'es  then  rested.  An 
old  house  which  formerly  stood  near  the  Broad- 
way at  Chesham,  lying  back  a  little  from  the 
road,  and  with  a  brook  or  ditch  in  front  of  it, 
was  pointed  out  as  that  in  which  he  spent  the 
last  night  of  his  life.  The  house  was  pulled 
down  about  1870,  and  the  site  is  now  occupied 
by  a  brush  factory.  In  some  articles  on  local 
history,  by   Mr.    R.  S.  Downs,  which   appeared 


158  THE    LOLLAEDS 

in  the  Chesham  Examiner  a  few  years  ago,  a 
tradition  was  mentioned  to  the  effect  that  Harding 
was  also  confined  for  a  time  in  the  "  parvise  " 
over  the  church  porch.  Another  tradition,  it 
must  be  said  a  very  absurd  one,  tells  how,  as 
Harding  was  being  led  up  the  hill,  he  hesitated 
whether  he  would  not  recant  after  alJ,  and  uttered 
the  words,  "  Shall  I  mount?"  whence,  we  are 
told,  the  hill  derived  the  name  of  "  Shally 
Mount,"  by  which  it  is  sometimes  known.  This 
is  just  one  of  those  philological  guesses  by  which 
local  names  are  often  accounted  for,  and  is  incon- 
sistent with  the  facts  brought  to  light  by  Mr. 
Maddison. 

A  local  authoress,  the  late  Miss  Werry,  pub- 
lished about  forty  years  ago,  a  book  called 
Memorials  of  Agmondcsham  and  Chesham  Ley- 
cester ;  or,  Tico  Martyr  Stories.  Though  written 
in  a  charming  style,  these  "  Memorials  "  have  no 
pretensions  to  historical  accuracy,  and  it  is  to 
be  feared  that  they  have  tended  to  confuse  the 
traditional  accounts  of  the  district.  The  first 
story,  "  The  Schoolmaster  of  Agmondesham," 
contains  incidents  culled  from  various  narratives 
in  Foxe,  especially  his  account  of  Thomas  Benet, 
burned  at  Exeter  in  1531.  These  are  located  at 
Amersham,  and  allotted  to  an  imaginary  William 
Chase.  The  second  narrative,  "  A  Memorial  of 
Chesham  Lcycester,"  gives  a  somewhat  distorted 
version  of  the  trial  and  death  of  Thomas,  or,  as 
he  is  here  called,  John  Harding.  An  interesting 
article  on  Harding's  death  appeared  in  the  Quiver 


THE  LAST  LOLLAED  MAETYRS  159 

for  May,  1888,  under  the  title,  "  A  Bucks  Martyr 
Site  and  its  Story."  It  was  from  the  pen  of  the 
late  Mr.  W.  J.  Lacey  (to  whose  courtesy  I  am 
indebted  for  some  of  the  facts  in  this  chapter), 
and  was  accompanied  by  excellent  engravings  of 
the  site  of  Harding's  death,  and  the  view  form 
"  the  martyr's  stile." 

Another  trace  of  the  martyr  times,  till  lately 
existing  near  Chesham,  may  here  be  mentioned. 
Between  Chesham  and  Latimer,  lies  an  ancient 
building  known  as  Blackwell  Hall,  possibly  aa 
old  religious  house.  Here,  according  to  an  inte- 
resting article  in  the  Records  of  Buckinghamshire 
(iii.  66,  67),  human  bones  have  been  dug  up 
in  the  garden,  as  well  as  several  gold  coins.  On 
the  walls  of  the  kitchen  might  formerly  be  traced 
rude  drawings  of  men  and  women  chained  to 
stakes  and  nailed  to  crosses  ;  and  on  each  side 
of  the  fire-place  were  texts  of  Scripture,  which 
appear  to  be  citations  from  Coverdale's  version, 
given  from  memory.  On  the  left,  "  Eeceive  the 
word  of  God,  wherewith  ye  may  learn  to  know 
God  ;  happy  are  they  that  hear  the  word  of  God  " 
(Jas.  i.  21;  Luke  xi.  28).  On  the  right,  "He 
that  is  of  God  heareth  God's  words  ;  ye  therefore 
hear  them  not,  because  ye  are  not  of  God  "  (John 
viii.  47).  "  Why  do  ye  not  understand  my  speech  ? 
even  because  ye  cannot  abide  the  hearing  of  my 
word  "  (John  viii.  43). 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE    TURN    OF    THE   TIDE 

A  GREAT  change  in  the  relation  of  the  State  to 
the  Church  is  manifest  when  we  come  to  the  year 
1534,  the  year  of  the  Act  of  Supremacy,  and  of 
the  formal  separation  from  Eome.  In  the  same 
year  it  was  enacted  that  a  heretic,  instead  of 
being  left  to  the  arbitiary  control  of  the 
episcopal  courts,  must  be  proceeded  against 
by  two  witnesses  in  open  court  and  tried 
by  jury,  with  the  right  of  admission  to 
bail ;  nor  could  he  be  burned  without  a 
royal  writ.  "  The  poisoned  chalice  "  which  the 
Papal  party  had  mingled  for  the  Lollards  was  now 
commended  to  their  own  lips.  In  1535,  Sir 
Thomas  More,  Fisher,  Bishop  of  Eochester,  and 
others,  were  executed  for  refusing  to  take  the 
Oath  of  SujDremacy.  It  was  no  longer  possible 
for  zealots  like  Rowland  Messenger  to  preach 
"  the  maintaining  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Bishop 
of  Rome,  and  the  state  of  his  apostolical  see;" 
for  no  priest  could  preach  without  a  license,  and 
then,  under  heavy  penalties,  he  was  bound  to 
maintain  Royal  Supremacy. 
In  the  same  year  (1535)  fourteen  Dutch  Anabap- 
160 


THE    TUEN    OF    THE    TIDE        161 

tists,  who  had  come  over  to  England,  were  burned, 
two  in  Smithfield,  the  remainder  in  various  towns. 
Their  execution  was  partly  due  to  political 
reasons.  The  excesses  of  John  of  Leyden  and 
Knipperdoling  had  made  the  name  of  Anabaptist 
as  much  dreaded  and  hated  as  that  of  Anarchist 
is  to-day.  Yet  these  poor  unnamed  Hollanders, 
"  who  by  no  terror  of  stake  or  torture  could  be 
tempted  to  say  that  they  believed  what  they  did 
not  believe,"  v.^ere,  as  Mr.  Froude  has  said, 
"  assisting  to  pay  the  purchase-money  for  Eng- 
lish freedom."  And  from  this  time  the  Anabap- 
tists are  often  met  with  in  English  religious 
history  ;  and  it  is  noteworthy  that  at  a  sj^nod  of 
their  leaders  held  in  Westphalia  in  1536,  deputies 
from  England  were  present.  There  was  every 
likelihood  that  some  of  the  Lollards  would  join 
the  new  sect,  whose  more  moderate  leaders  held 
views  very  similar  to  their  own.  And  this  may 
account  for  the  fact  that  in  some  of  the  districts 
where  Lollardy  had  been  strongest,  and  notably 
in  South  Bucks,  we  find  Baptists  numerous  in 
the  next  century. 

The  right  of  Englishmen  to  have  the  Bible  in 
their  own  tongue,  for  which  the  Lollards  had 
so  long  contended,  was  won  by  slow  degrees. 
Tyndale's  translation  had  been  condemned  for  its 
alleged  inaccuracy,  though  amply  vindicated  by 
the  verdict  of  later  ages.  In  1530,  Henry 
promised  to  have  the  New  Testament  translated, 
"  to  the  intent  he  might  have  it  in  his  hands 
ready  to  be  given  to  his  people,  as  he  might  see 


169  THE    LOLLAEDS 

their  manners  and  behaviour  meet,  apt,  and  con- 
venient to  receive  the  same."  But  the  Bishops 
were  divided  on  the  matter.  Gardiner  had  a 
preposterous  scheme  for  a  version  in  a  medley  of 
Latin  and  EngHsh.  Cranmer  petulantly  wrote 
that  he  saw  no  prospect  of  a  version  being  agreed 
upon  "till  a  day  after  doomsday."  But  in  the 
eventful  year  1535,  Miles  Coverdale  was  able  to 
issue  the  Bible,  under  the  patronage  of  Cromwell, 
and  in  1537  he  published  a  second  edition,  "  set 
forth  with  the  King's  most  gracious  Hcense." 

Thomas  Cromwell  was  now  "  vicegerent  of  the 
King  in  all  matters  ecclesiastical;"  stern,  relent- 
less, unpitying,  and  determined  to  humble  the 
Romanist  party  to  the  utmost.  Injunction  after 
injunction  was  issued  to  the  clergy,  for  the  abro- 
gation of  holy  days,  the  discouragement  of 
pilgrimages  and  image-worship,  and  the  teaching 
of  the  Creed,  the  Paternoster,  and  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments in  English.  Commissioners  were 
appointed  to  visit  the  religious  houses,  and 
presented  to  Parliament  their  report,  the  famous 
"  Black  Book."  Its  revelations  of  the  alleged 
depravity  of  the  monks  were  met  by  the  Commons 
with  cries  of  "  Down  with  them  !"  The  smaller 
houses  (all  with  incomes  of  less  than  ^£200  a 
year)  were  now  suppressed.  In  Buckingham- 
shire this  only  affected  Little  Marlow, 
where  there  were  but  two  nuns,  Medmen- 
ham,  where  there  was  a  single  monk, 
and  the  house  was  entirely  ruinous,  and 
Ankerwyke.       The   revenues  of   all  three   were 


THE    TURN    OF    THE    TIDE        163 

annexed  to  the  neighbouring  abbey  of  Bisham  in 
Berkshire. 

But  the  Romanist  party  did  not  submit  without 
resistance.     On  October  4th,  1537,  as  the  beech- 
woods    on    the   Chilterns   were    rich    with    their 
mellow  autumn   tints,   three  wearied   horsemen, 
who  had  ridden  day  and  night  out  of  the  far-off 
Fen  country,  came  across  the  hills,  bearing  evil 
tidings   to  the  King   at   Windsor.       They    were 
Heneage,  one  of  the  Royal  commissioners,  with 
Sir     Marmaduke     Constable    and     Sir     Edward 
Madyson.        The  day   before,    at  Horncastle  in 
Lincolnshire,  Heneage  had  been  attacked  by  a 
fierce  mob  of  people,  led  on  by  monks  and  priests. 
He  had  escaped  from  them,  but  the  chancellor 
of  Lincoln,  who  was  with  him,  had  been  cruelly 
put  to  death.     Bishop  Longland  had  made  him- 
self as  obnoxious  to  the  Catholics  by  his  Eras- 
tianism,  as  to  the  Gospellers  by  his  persecution  ; 
and  his  palace  at  Lincoln  had  been  attacked  and 
plundered.     The  summons  to  arms  immediately 
went  through  the  country  ;  and  the  men  of  Bucks 
and  the  other  counties   where    "heretics"    had 
most   abounded,   rallied    to    the    support    of   the 
King.        The   Lincolnshire  rising,   and    the   still 
more  serious  revolt  which  followed  in  the  North, 
the   "  Pilgrimage  of  Grace,"   were  stamped  out 
with  ruthless  severity.     The  nobles  who  had  led 
the  movement  were  sent  to  the  block  ;  the  abbots 
and  squires  to  the  gallows.     And  still  the  work 
of  change    went   on.       Images   and   relics  were 
removed   from    their    gorgeous    shrines,    and   in 


164  THE    LOLLARDS 

many  instances  were  brought  to  London  to  be 
burned.  "Our  Lady  of  Walsingham,"  "the 
Blood  of  Hales,"  "  the  Rood  of  Grace,"  were 
exposed  to  mockery  and  contempt,  as  mere 
juggles  and  impostures.  But  so  violent  a  move- 
ment could  not  fail  to  bring  about  a  reaction, 
and  already  there  were  ominous  signs  of  a  coming 
change.  Henry  and  his  advisers  seemed  ner- 
vously anxious  to  prove  that  they  were  not  to  be 
confounded  with  heretics  ;  and  in  1538  was  wit- 
nessed the  not  very  creditable  spectacle  of 
Cranmer  and  Thomas  Cromwell  assisting  in  the 
condemnation  of  John  Lambert  for  views  but  little 
differing  from  their  own. 

In  the  same  year,  a  man  named  Cowbridge, 
of  a  wealthy  family  in  Essex,  which  had  held 
Lollard  views  from  the  time  of  Wycliffe,  was 
brought  before  the  aged  Bishop  Longland  at  "  a 
place  beside  Wickham  "  (no  doubt  at  Wooburn), 
and  charged  with  heresy.  He  had  been 
living  for  some  time  at  Wantage,  where, 
as  we  have  seen,  Lollards  were  met  with 
in  1521.  Here,  says  Foxe  (v.  252)  he  had 
"by  a  long  season  exercised  the  office  of  a 
priest  in  teaching  and  ministering  of  the  sacra- 
ments, but  being  no  priest  indeed,  and  had  con- 
verted many  to  the  truth."  Longland  com- 
mitted him  to  the  Bocardo  prison  at  Oxford, 
where  he  is  said  to  have  lost  his  reason,  and  he 
was  burned  in  that  city  shortly  after. 

Mr.  Maddison  finds  mention  of  this  Cowbridge 
in  the  Longland  Register,  where  it  is  stated  that 


THE    TURN    OF    THE    TIDE        165 

he  had  relapsed  into  heresy  after  solemnly 
abjuring  it  under  Bishop  Smith.  He  objects 
that  no  mention  is  made  of  his  madness.  Surely, 
if  the  authorities  had  acknowledged  him  to  be 
mad,  they  would  hardly  have  burned  him  !  Here 
it  must  be  noted  that  Foxe  expressly  says  that  he 
had  not  seen  the  account  of  Cowbridge's  trial  in 
the  Register ;  and  this  may  surely  be  regarded  as 
a  strong  presumption  that  the  register  he  quotes 
elsewhere  is  a  different  one  from  that  examined 
by  Mr.  Maddison.  Foxe  was  a  student  at  Brase- 
nose  at  the  time  of  Cowbridge's  death,  and  took 
his  B.A.  degree  the  same  year.  His  account  of 
this  poor  man  must  have  been  drawn  from  his 
own  recollections,  or  from  University  gossip. 

We  now  come  to  the  fateful  year  1539,  the 
year  of  the  final  suppression  of  the  monasteries, 
and  of  full  liberty  to  read  the  Bible  in  English. 
The  "  greater  abbeys,"  which  had  been  left 
intact  in  1536,  were  all  dissolved,  and  their 
revenues  confiscated.  In  Buckinghamshire  the 
houses  now  suppressed  were  Ashridge  (which 
became  the  nursery  of  the  infant  Prince  Edward), 
Notley,  Burnham,  Missenden,  Biddlesden, 
Snelshall,  Lavendon,  Ivinghoe,  and  the  Friary 
at  Aylesbury.  The  Grey  Friars  of  Aylesbury 
were  in  debt ;  their  revenues  were  only  valued  at 
£3  2s.  5d.  per  annum,  and  their  chapel  was 
meagrely  adorned.  They  signed  a  document 
stating  that  they  had  "  profoundly  considered 
that  the  perfection  of  Christian  living  doth  not 
consist  in  dumb  ceremonies,  wearing  of  a  grey 


166  THE    LOLLAEDS 

coat,  disguising  ourself  after  strange  fashions, 
ducking  and  becking,  in  girding  ourself  with  a 
girdle  full  of  knots,  and  other  like  Papistical  cere- 
monies, wherein  we  have  been  most  principally 
practised  and  misled  in  times  past ;  but  the  very 
true  way  to  please  God ,  and  to  live  a  true  Chris- 
tian man,  without  all  hypocrisy  and  dissimulation, 
is  sincerely  declared  unto  us  by  our  Master  Christ, 
His  evangelists  and  apostles."  A  similar  form 
had  to  be  signed  by  the  friars  in  other  parts  of 
England,  e.g.,  at  Leicester.  It  is  satisfactory  to 
find  that  scarcely  any  of  the  Buckinghamshire 
houses  were  charged  with  those  revolting  im- 
moralities which  were  ascribed  to  some  in  other 
parts  of  the  country,  though  Longland  himself 
had  severely  censured  some  of  the  Missenden 
canons  not  long  before. 

The  inmates  of  the  religious  houses  received 
pensions  for  life.  The  Abbot  of  Biddlesden, 
for  instance,  had  £40,  the  sub-prior  £6,  and  the 
eight  monks  £5  6s.  8d.  each.  The  Abbot  of 
Notley  had  what  was  then  the  large  amount  of 
£100  a  year,  and  lived  to  enjoy  it  till  1538. 
Some  pensions  continued  to  be  drawn  when 
James  I.  came  to  the  throne.  One  of  the  canons 
of  Missenden  became  vicar  of  the  parish,  and 
another,  who  had  been  accustomed  to  take  ser- 
vices at  Lee,  received  an  addition  to  his  pension 
on  undertaking  to  continue  them.  But  great 
distress  was  caused  by  the  wholesale  way  in 
which  the  dependents  of  the  monasteries  were 
thrown   out   of   employment.     More  than  forty 


THE    TUEN    OF    THE    TIDE        167 

persons,  mostly  agricultural  labourers,  thus 
suffered  by  the  suppression  of  the  nunnery  at 
Burnham,  which  is  admitted  to  have  been  well 
conducted.  The  new  owner  of  the  estate  was 
put  in  bodily  fear  by  the  threats  of  the  unem- 
ployed men.  However  desirable  the  suppression 
of  the  monasteries  may  have  been  from  a  religious 
point  of  view,  it  is  impossible  to  speak  too 
severely  of  the  selfish  and  shameless  greed  with 
which  it  was  carried  out. 

Some  of  the  dispossessed  abbots  and  monks 
embraced  the  Reformed  doctrines.  The  Abbots 
of  IMissenden  and  Bisham  both  married,  and  the 
latter  became  a  Protestant  bishop. 

In  the  same  year  (1539)  the  new  edition  of  the 
Scriptures,  the  "  Great  Bible,"  was  issued,  and, 
by  Eoyal  authority,  was  placed  at  once  in  every 
parish  church,  while  the  clergy  were  bidden  to 
"  provoke,  stir,  and  exhort  "  their  people  to  read 
it.  We  can  imagine  the  joy  with  which  the 
Lollards  would  hail  the  newly-granted  liberty, 
though  this  joy  may  have  been  damped  by  the 
discovery  that  the  new  version  differed  so  much 
from  their  long-prized  parchment  scrolls.  Strype 
says  : — 

"It  was  wonderful  to  see  with  what  joy  this 
book  of  God  was  received,  not  only  among  the 
learneder  sort,  and  those  that  were  noted  for 
lovers  of  the  Eeformation,  but  generally  all 
England  over,  among  all  the  vulgar  and  common 
people;  and  with  what  greediness  God's  Word 
was  read,  and  what  resort  to  places  where  the 


168  THE    LOLLAEDS 

reading  of  it  was.  Everybody  that  could  bought 
the  book,  or  busily  read  it,  or  got  others  to  read 
it  to  them  if  they  could  not  themselves,  and 
divers  more  elderly  people  learned  to  read  on 
purpose.  And  even  little  boys  flocked  among  the 
rest  to  hear  portions  of  the  holy  Scriptures  read." 

But  while  multitudes  shared  the  Lollard  desire 
for  reading  the  Scriptures  in  English,  many  of 
them  still  dreaded  the  Lollard  doctrine  on  the 
Eucharist.  Alarmed  by  certain  excesses  on  the 
part  of  the  extreme  Protestants,  and  anxious  that 
his  subjects  should  observe  what  he  regarded  as 
the  golden  mean  between  Eoman  superstition  and 
Lutheran  fanaticism,  Henry  had  a  Bill  intro- 
duced into  Parliament,  styled  with  delightful 
simplicity  "  An  Act  for  Abolishing  Diversity  of 
Opinions."  This  was  the  famous  Statute  of  the 
Six  Articles,  or  as  the  Protestants  called  it,  "  the 
Whip  of  Six  Strings."  It  rendered  penal  the 
rejection  of  transubstantiation,  of  communion  on 
one  kind,  vows  of  chastity,  celibacy  of  the  clergy, 
private  masses,  or  auricular  confession.  Burning 
was  the  penalty  for  a  denial  of  transnbRtantiation , 
and  on  a  second  offence,  for  an  infraction  of  any 
of  the  other  articles.  Refusal  to  confess  or  to 
attend  mass  became  a  felony.  Five  hundred 
were  indicted  in  LondOii  alone.  Bishops 
Latimer  and  Shaxton  were  imprisoned ;  and 
Cranmer  himself  narrowly  escaped. 

In  Longland's  diocese,  persecution  broke  out 
once  more,  but  the  charges  were  far  less  numerous 
and  varied  than  those  in  1521.     In  Buckingham- 


THE    TURN    OF   THE    TIDE        169 

shire,  William  Fastendich,  of  Wooburn,  and 
William  Hart,  of  Great  Brickhill,  were  charged 
with  a  denial  of  transnbstantiation  ;  the  latter, 
who  affords  a  solitary  instance  of  a  North  Bucks 
heretic,  having  said,  "  Thinkest  thou  that  God 
Almighty  will  abide  over  a  knave  priest's  head?" 
Christopher  Erles,  of  Eisborough,  was  indicted 
for  having  looked  down  at  his  book  instead  of 
bowing  at  the  elevation  of  the  host.  He  had 
also  been  seen  at  work  on  a  piece  of  fustian  on 
a  holy  day,  and  when  taxed  with  it  had  replied 
that  "  it  was  better  to  do  that  than  to  sit  at 
the  alehouse  drinking  drunk."  William  Gar- 
land, of  West  Wycombe,  had  said  that  extreme 
unction  was  a  "godly  sign,"  and  not  a  sacra- 
ment. William  Webb,  of  the  same  parish,  had 
set  "  the  image  of  a  headless  bear,"  most  likely 
a  broken  piece  of  stonework,  "  in  the  tabernacle 
of  St.  Roke."  Elenore  Godfrey,  of  Great  Mar- 
low,  was  summoned  for  "  laughing  and  speaking 
certain  words  against  one  Thomas  Collard,"  whom 
she  had  characterised,  it  seems,  as  "a  pope-holy 
hypocrite,"  and  described  him  as  "  crouching 
behind  the  children  in  Marlow  Church,  and  when 
the  priest  crossed  his  head  with  the  '  saucer  '  he 
would  cross  his  head  likewise."  "For  these 
words  she  was  convented  before  the  Bishop,  and 
miserably  vexed."     (Foxe,  v.  454). 

Foxe  here  introduces  the  burning  of  James 
Morton  (or  Morden)  and  Thomas  Bernard  of 
Amersham  ;  but  we  have  already  seen  that  this 
must  have  taken  place  at  an  earlier  date.     Next 


170  THE    LOLLARDS 

he  speaks  of  one  Barber,  an  Oxford  M.A.,  who 
had  been  cited  for  heresy,  and  had  defended  him- 
self with  marked  abihty,  but  who  recanted  about 
this  time,  "  after  which  the  good  man  long  pros- 
pered not,  but  wore  away."  Was  this  person, 
here  joined  with  two  Amersham  men,  the  "  John 
Barber,  clerk,  of  Amersham,"  accused  of  heresy 
in  1521? 

The  closing  years  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII. 
afford  a  most  perplexing  spectacle  of  confusion 
in  religious  affairs — Catholic  and  Protestant  sym- 
pathisers among  nobles  and  prelates  intriguing 
and  counter-intriguing  at  the  Council-board ; 
Catholic  priests  saying  mass  in  one  part  of  a 
church,  while  Protestant  zealots  were  loudly 
reading  the  Scriptures  in  another ;  Catholics  and 
Protestants  dragged  to  Smithfield  on  the  same 
hurdles,  the  first  to  be  hanged  for  treason,  the 
other  to  be  burned  for  heresy.  The  Protestants 
of  Bucks  would  hear  at  one  time  of  a  martyrdom 
on  their  own  borders,  when  three  Windsor  men, 
Peerson,  Filmer,  and  Test  wood,  were  burned  just 
below  the  Castle.  A  few  weeks  later  they  would 
hear  how  their  accusers  had  been  made  to  ride 
round  the  streets  of  Windsor,  with  their  faces 
to  the  horses'  tails,  and  papers  on  their  heads 
charging  them  with  perjury,  and  then  had  had 
to  stand  in  the  pillory.  In  the  same  year  (1543) 
Jacob  Mallet,  a  canon  of  Windsor,  and  formerly 
master  of  the  hospital  at  High  Wycombe,  was 
executed  for  treason.  The  charge  against  him 
w^as  that,   speaking    of    the   dissolution    of   the 


THE    TURN    OF    THE    TIDE        171 

abbeys,   he  had   said,    "The  King  hath   brought 
his  hogs  to  a  fine  market ! ' ' 

The  Act  of  the  Six  Articles  was  considerably 
modified  in  1546,  and  again  in  1547.  But  on 
the  other  hand  Henry  complained  that  "  that 
most  precious  jewel,  the  Word  of  God,  was  dis- 
puted, rhymed,  sung,  and  jangled  in  every  ale 
house  and  tavern;"  and  therefore  he  withdrew 
the  liberty  of  Bible-reading  from  every  one 
"under  the  degree  of  a  gentleman,"  and  pro- 
hibited Tyndale's  and  Coverdale's  versions.  This 
reign  of  confusion  and  compromise  lasted  till 
Henry's  death  in  1547.  In  the  same  year 
Bishop  Longland  passed  to  his  account. 

Edward  VI.  succeeded  his  father  at  the  age 
of  nine.  A  child  whose  playground  had  been 
among  the  deserted  halls  and  walks  of  a  Bucking- 
hamshire monastery  (the  College  at  Ashridge)  was 
not  likely  to  have  a  very  awful  reverence  for  the 
old  system ;  and  his  rapacious  advisers  had  if 
possible  even  less.  Sweeping  changes  were  the 
order  of  the  day.  The  Mass  was  changed  into 
a  Communion  service.  The  marriage  of  the 
clergy  was  permitted.  The  churches  were  ruth- 
lessly stripped  of  their  adornments.  Not  only 
the  Act  of  the  Six  Articles,  but  all  the  Acts 
passed  against  Lollardy  in  the  reigns  of  Richard 
II.,  Henry  IV.,  and  Henry  V.,  were  repealed. 

But  the  heart  of  the  nation  was  far  as  yet 
from  sanctioning  the  new  reforms.  In  1549 
risings  took  place  in  Cornwall,  Devon,  York- 
shire, and  Norfolk.      They  were   due   partly  to 


13 


172  THE    LOLLAKDS 

Bomanist  influence,  and  partly  to  agrarian  dis- 
content. A  less  important  outbreak  occurred  in 
Oxfordshire,  in  which  many  inhabitants  of  Bucks 
(probably  of  the  Cathohc  districts  in  the  North) 
were  concerned.  It  was  led  by  certain  priests, 
but  was  quickly  suppressed  by  Lord  Grey  of 
Wilton,  who  marched  through  the  disturbed 
region  with  a  force  of  German  mercenaries,  and 
hanged  several  priests  on  their  own  church  towers. 
A  spirit  of  bitterness  w^as  being  engendered, 
which  was  preparing  the  way  for  a  frightful  re- 
action. 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

JOHN  KNOX  IN  BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 

In  the  spring  of  1553  it  became  evident  that  the 
deHcate,  precocious  boy-king  was  passing  away. 
The  Court  removed  to  Greenwich,  and  the  poor 
lonely  little  Edward  was  soon  confined  to  the 
chamber  of  his  last  illness.  On  April  14th  a 
remarkable  incident  took  place  at  the  Council 
table.  John  Knox,  afterwards  so  famous  in  the 
historj'-  of  the  Scottish  Eeformation,  was  at  this 
time  in  England,  and  had  been  appointed  one  of 
the  King's  chaplains.  He  had  been  offered  first 
the  see  of  Eochester,  and  then  a  living  in  Lon- 
don, but  had  declined,  owing  to  conscientious 
scruples  ;  and  he  was  now  summoned  before  the 
Council  to  state  the  grounds  of  his  refusal.  Having 
explained  his  objections  to  the  polity  of  the  Eng- 
lish Church,  he  was  courteously  dismissed.  As 
he  had  no  objection  to  undertake  itinerant  work, 
he  was  asked  shortly  afterwards  to  go  on  a  sort 
of  preaching  tour  through  Buckinghamshire. 
The  following  minute  appears  in  the  Council 
Register  : — 

"  At   Grenewich,   the  2nd  of  June,  1553.     A 
173 


174  THE    LOLLAEDS 

letter  to  the  Lord  Russell,  Lord  Windesour,  and 
the  rest  of  the  gentlemen  within  the  Countie  of 
Buckingham,  in  favour  of  Mr.  Knockes,  the 
preacher,  according  to  the  minutes." 

Two  leading  members  of  the  Council  at  this 
time,  the  Earl  of  Bedford  and  Sir  Thomas  Cheyne, 
were  intimately  associated  with  South  Bucks. 
Cheyne  belonged  to  the  old  Lollard  stock  already 
more  than  once  referred  to.  It  is  noticeable  that 
Knox  seems  to  have  begun  his  labours  near  Bed- 
ford's seat  of  Chenies.  He  may  very  likely  have 
been  entertained  at  the  old  manor-house,  still 
standing,  which  was  built  a  few  years  before  his 
visit,  and  perhaps  at  Lord  Windsor's  seat  at 
Bradenham.  The  Lord  Eussell  to  whom  he  was 
commended  was  probably  Lord  Francis,  after- 
wards the  second  Earl,  a  man  who  not  only 
staunchly  supported  the  cause  of  Protestantism, 
but  also  cherished  the  traditions  of  the  older  re- 
forming movement.  At  his  death  in  1585,  when 
he  left  sums  of  money  for  "godly  sermons"  to 
be  preached  in  Chenies  Church  and  elsewhere 
he  bequeathed  his  MSS.  of  Wycliffe's  works,  as 
a  valued  possession,  to  his  friend  Lord  Burleigh  ; 
and  in  the  Countess  Cowper's  library  at  Wrest 
Park  is  a  vellum  folio  of  Wycliffe's  sermons, 
copied  about  1400,  bearing  the  autograph  "  Fran- 
cis Russell  "  and  the  date  1556. 

Knox  left  London  with  forebodings  gloomy  as 
Jonah's  when  he  cried,  "  Yet  forty  days,  and 
Nineveh  shall  be  destroyed."  He  saw  that  the 
death  of  Edward  meant  the  accession  of  Mary, 


JOHN    KNOX  175 

an  alliance  with  her  uncle  Charles  V.  of  Germany, 
and  a  deadly  blow  to  the  Protestant  cause  through- 
out Europe.  We  have  scarcely  any  definite 
records  of  his  work  in  Buckinghamshire.  It  com- 
menced, as  we  have  seen,  early  in  June,  and  he 
was  back  again  in  London  on  the  19th  of  July. 
But  he  had  visited  the  city  during  the  inten^al, 
for  the  earliest  of  his  published  letters  is  dated 
from  London  on  the  23rd  of  June.  On 
the  6th  of  July  the  young  King  died.  The 
unprincipled  attempt  of  Northumberland  to  set 
upon  the  throne  Lady  Jane  Grey,  whom  he  had 
married  to  his  son  Lord  Guildford  Dudley  during 
Edward's  illness,  roused  the  spirit  of  the  nation 
on  behalf  of  Mary.  The  county  of  Bucks,  both 
Catholic  and  Protestant,  was  enthusiastically  in 
her  favour,  and  the  boroughs  of  Wycombe,  x\yles- 
bury,  and  Buckingham,  owed  their  charters  of 
incorporation  to  the  loyalty  they  displayed  in  her 
cause  at  this  time.  Sir  Edward  Hastings,  of 
Denham,  had  raised  the  musters  of  the  county 
in  Mary's  name,  and  had  been  joined  by  Sir 
Thomas  Wharton,  of  Upper  Winchendon,  and 
by  Sir  Edmund  Peckham,  Cofferer  of  the  House- 
hold, who  had  abandoned  the  court  of  the 
"  Twelfth  Day  Queen  "  with  the  treasure  under 
his  charge.  Knox  knew  that  in  opposing  Mary's 
succession  he  would  speak  at  the  peril  of  his  life 
from  the  troopers  of  Hastings  ;  while  even  his 
Protestant  hearers  would  be  offended  at  the  inter- 
ference of  a  foreigner  with  the  claims  of  their 
liege  lady.     But  "  he  that  never  feared  the  face 


176  THE    LOLIjAEDS 

of  man,"  as  the  Regent  Morton  called  him,  waa 
not  to  be  restrained  by  such  considerations. 
Wherever  he  went,  he  declared  "  that  the  last 
trumpet  was  then  in  blowing  within  the  realm 
of  England,  and  therefore  ought  every  man  to 
prepare  himself  for  battle.  For  if  the  trumpet 
should  altogether  cease  and  be  put  to  silence,  it 
should  never  blow  again  with  the  like  force  with- 
in the  said  realm,  till  the  coming  of  the  Lord 
Jesus." 

On  Sunday,  July  16th,  just  before  his  return 
to  London,  Knox  preached  in  Amersham  Church. 
Among  his  hearers  there  might  be  survivors  of 
the  Lollards  who  had  been  branded  on  the  cheek 
and  forced  to  do  penance  in  the  dark  days  of 
persecution,  which  he  now  foresaw  were  about 
to  return,  little  as  his  hearers  realised  their  dan- 
ger. Writing  at  Dieppe,  two  years  later,  he  calls 
to  mind  the  agitated  scene  ;  and  in  his  Admonition 
unto  the  Professors  of  God's  Truth  in  England, 
he  makes  the  following  reference  to  it,  with  the 
marginal  heading,  "  What  was  sayd  in  Hammer- 
shame,  when  uproure  was  for  establyshing  of 
Marye  in  authority  "  : — 

"  In  wrytinge  herof  it  came  to  mind  that  after 
the  death  of  that  innocent  and  moste  godlye 
kynge,  Edwarde  the  Sixte,  whyle  that  great 
tumnlte  was  in  Englande  for  the  establyshing  of 
that  most  unhappye  and  wycked  womane's 
authoritie  (I  mean  of  her  that  now  raigneth  in 
Goddes  wrath),  entreatinge  the  same  argument  in 
a  towne  in  Buckinghamshyre,  named  Hammer- 


JOHN    KNOX  177 

shame,  before  a  great  congregation,  with  sorrow- 
ful herte  and  wepynge  eyes,  I  fel  into  this 
exclamation  : — 

"  '  0  Englande  !  now  is  Goddes  wrath  kyndled 
againste  thee.  Nowe  hath  he  begonne  to  puny- 
she,  as  he  hath  threatened  a  longe  whyle,  by 
his  true  prophetes  and  messengers.  He  hath 
taken  from  thee  the  crowne  of  thy  glorie,  and 
hath  left  thee  without  honour,  as  a  bodye  with- 
out a  heade.  And  this  appeareth  to  be  onely  the 
begynnynge  of  sorowes,  which  appeareth  to  en- 
crease.  For  I  perceave  that  the  herte,  the 
tounge,  and  the  hande  of  one  Englysh  man  is 
bente  agaynst  another,  and  devision  to  be  in  the 
whole  realme,  which  is  an  assured  signe  of  deso- 
lation to  come. 

"'0  Englande,  Englande!  doest  thou  not 
consider  that  thy  common  wealth  is  lyke  a  shippe 
sailyng  on  the  sea  ;  yf  thy  maryners  and  gover- 
nours  shall  one  consume  another,  shalte  thou  not 
sufPer  shipwracke  in  processe  of  tyme? 

"'0  Englande,  Englande!  alasse !  these 
plagues  are  powred  upon  thee,  for  that  thou 
wouldest  not  knowe  the  moste  happy  tyme  of 
thy  gentle  visitation.  But  wilt  thou  yet  obey 
the  voyce  of  thy  God,  and  submitte  thy  selfe  to 
his  holy  words?  Tniely,  yf  thou  wilt,  thou 
shalt  fynde  mercye  in  his  syght,  and  the  estate 
of  thy  common  wealth  shall  be  preserved. 

"  '  But.  O  Englande,  Englande  !  yf  thou  obsti- 
nately wilt  returne  into  Egypt,  that  is,  yf  thou 
contract    mariage,   confederacy,  or   league    with 


178  THE    LOLLARDS 

such  princes  as  do  mayntayne  and  advaunce 
ydolatrie  (such  as  the  Emperoure,  which  is  no 
less  enemie  unto  Christe  than  ever  was  Nero) 
yf  for  the  pleasure  and  friendshippe  (I  say)  of 
such  princes,  thou  returne  to  thyne  olde  abhomi- 
nations,  before  used  under  the  Papistrie,  then 
assuredly,  0  Englande,  thou  shalt  be  plagued, 
and  brought  to  destruction,  by  the  meanes  of 
those  whose  favoures  thou  sekest,  and  by  whome 
thou  art  procured  to  fall  from  Christ,  and  to  serve 
Anti-Christ.' 

"  This,  and  muche  more,  in  the  dolour  of 
rayne  herte,  that  day,  in  audience  of  such  as  yet 
may  beare  recorde,  God  wolde  that  I  should  pro- 
nounce. The  thinge  that  I  then  most  feared, 
and  which  also  my  tounge  spake — that  is,  the 
subversion  of  the  true  religion,  and  bryngynge 
in  of  straungers  to  raigne  over  that  realme — this 
day  I  see  come  to  passe  in  men's  counsels  and 
determinations."     (Works,  iii.  307-309). 

It  was  in  vain  that  the  "  Twelfth  Day  Queen  " 
ordered  Sir  John  St.  Lowe  and  Sir  Anthony 
Kingston  to  repair  to  Buckinghamshire  and  quell 
the  disturbances  there.  When  Knox  returned 
to  London,  on  July  19th,  he  found  the  city  filled 
with  "  fires  of  joy  and  riotous  banquetings  "  at 
the  accession  of  Mary. 

It  would  seem  that  his  was  not  the  only  voice 
uplifted  at  Amersham  against  the  new  order  of 
things.  Foxe  makes  no  mention  of  his  sermon 
(though  it  is  alluded  to  by  Strj^pe) ;  but  in  the 
Acts  and  Monuments  (vi.  392,  393)  we  read  that 


JOHN    KNOX  179 

on  August  16th,  just  a  fortnight  after  Mary's  entry 
into  London,  and  upon  the  very  day  that  Eogers 
and  Bradford  were  imprisoned,  "  a  letter  was 
sent  to  the  Sheriffs  of  Buckingham  and  Bedford, 
for  the  apprehending  of  one  Fisher,  parson  of 
Amersham,  a  preacher  "  (John  Fisher,  S.T.B., 
who  had  held  the  living  since  1544).  On  the  22nd, 
the  day  of  Northumberland's  execution  on  Tower 
Hill,  "Fisher,  parson  of  Amersham,  made  hia 
appearance  before  the  Council,  and  was  appointed 
the  next  day  to  bring  in  a  note  of  his  sermon." 
Probably  he  submitted,  but  became  once  more 
a  Protestant  at  Elizabeth's  accession  five  years 
later,  for  he  held  the  living  till  1570.  It  seems 
strange  that  Knox  should  have  escaped  a  similar 
reprimand,  especially  as,  though  in  Kent  at  the 
time,  he  was  in  London  again  a  month  later. 
But  his  words  were  not  forgotten  ;  and  when  later 
on,  he  had  to  leave  the  Imperial  city  of  Frank- 
fort, it  was  owing  to  his  bold  denunciation  of 
the  Emperor  at  Amersham. 

The  evil  days  which  he  had  spoken  of  were 
not  long  in  coming.  The  ecclesiastical  laws  of 
Edward  VI.  were  repealed  in  December,  but  it 
was  not  till  the  close  of  the  following  year  that 
the  laws  against  Lollardy  were  re-enacted.  It 
should  never  be  forgotten  that  thirty-seven  mem- 
bers, Catholics  as  well  as  Protestants,  and  num- 
bering among  them  the  great  lawyer  Plowden, 
withdrew  from  the  House  of  Commons,  to  their 
eternal  honour  be  it  recorded,  rather  than  sanction 
Mary's   intolerant   policy.        Among    the  list  of 


180  THE    LOLLARDS 

names  given  by  Strypc  is  that  of  "  Thomas  Moor, 
of  Hambleton  "  (Hambleden),  "  Bucks,"  in  the 
old  Lollard  district — a  worthy  precursor  of  John 
Hampden  and  other  liberty-loving  Buckingham- 
shire squires  in  the  next  century. 

On  the  outbreak  of  Wyatt's  rebellion  in  1554, 
the  Princess  Elizabeth,  who  was  at  Ashridge,  was 
brought  up  to  London  at  the  Queen's  command 
by  Lord  William  Howard,  Sir  Edward  Hastings, 
and  Sir  Thomas  Constable.  Foxe's  account  of 
the  harsh  treatment  she  received  is  not  borne 
out  by  the  documentary  evidence,  from  which  it 
appears  that  she  was  brought  up  to  London  by 
easy  stages  on  account  of  her  illness,  and  treated 
with  every  consideration.  She  was  committed 
to  the  Tower,  but  was  soon  sent  to  Woodstock, 
and  then  to  Hampton  Court.  On  her  journey 
to  and  from  Woodstock  she  passed  through 
Buckinghamshire,  and  was  greeted  with  respectful 
sympathy  by  the  Protestant  party.  On  each 
occasion  she  stayed  one  night  at  the  ancient  seat 
of  the  Dormers  at  Wing,  and  on  the  later  journey 
slept  at  the  George  Inn  at  Colnbrook. 

We  may  pass  the  more  readily  over  the  perse- 
cutions of  the  three  following  years,  because  their 
rage  does  not  seem  to  have  extended  to  Bucking- 
hamshire. John  Taylor,  who  had  become  Bishop 
of  Lincoln  in  1552,  on  the  death  of  Longland's 
successor  Holbeach,  had  refused  to  attend  mass 
at  the  Queen's  coronation,  and  was  deprived  of 
his  see.  He  would  perhaps  have  shared  the  fate 
of   Cranmer,   Ridley,  and   Latimer,   but  for  his 


JOHN    KNOX  181 

death  soon  after  at  his  Buckinghamshire  resi- 
dence of  Ankerwyke.  His  successors,  John 
White  (translated  to  Winchester  in  1556)  and 
Thomas  Watson,  seem  to  have  been  merciful 
men ;  for  only  two  appear  to  have  suffered  in  all 
their  vast  diocese,  and  it  is  said  that  one  of  these 
was  burned  at  the  instigation  of  Cardinal  Pole. 
It  is  significant  that  the  greater  number  of  the 
Marian  martyrs,  among  the  laity  at  any  rate, 
came  from  Lollard  counties.  This  is  well  shown 
in  the  maps  of  Eev.  W.  H.  Beckett's  Eng'lish 
Reformation  (R.T.S.,  1890). 

Three  victims  suffered  as  near  the  Bucks  bor- 
der as  the  Lynch  Green  at  Uxbridge — John 
Denley  and  Robert  Smith,  on  the  8th  of  August, 
1555,  and  Patrick  Packingham  on  the  28th  of 
the  same  month. 

On  a  brass  of  Elizabeth's  time,  preserved  in 
Beaconsfield  Church,  are  the  following  lines, 
which  Foxe  (vii.  369)  says  were  written  by  Robert 
Smith  in  Newgate  : — 

Content  thyself  with  patience 

With  Christ  to  bear  the  cross  of  pain. 
Which  can  and  will  thee  recompense 

A  thousandfold  with  lyke  again. 
Let  nothing  cause  thy  heart  to  quail ; 

Launch  out  thy  boote,  haule  up  thy  sail. 
Put  from  the  shore  ; 
And  at  the  length  thou  shalt  attain 

Unto  the  port  that  shall  remain 
For  evermore. 


182  THE    LOLLARDS 

At  last,  in  November,  1558,  the  Fiery  Terror 
of  the  Marian  persecution  was  brought  to  a  close 
by  the  death  of  Mary  on  one  day  and  of  Pole 
on  the  next.  Immediately  on  the  accession  of 
Elizabeth,  a  "  Commission  of  Lollardy,"  which 
had  been  issued  by  Philip  and  Mary  in  1556, 
was  called  on  to  give  in  its  report,  but  it  was 
only  in  order  to  stay  further  proceedings.  Early 
in  1559  the  acts  against  Lollardy  were  finally 
repealed;  although,  as  we  have  seen,  an  oath 
against  it  continued  to  be  taken  by  magistrates 
till  1625. 

Our  narrative  has  now  reached  the  close  of  the 
Lollard  period,  and  we  have  only  to  refer  to  the 
way  in  which  Lollardy  has  influenced  the  sub- 
sequent religious  history  of  the  district  we  have 
had  in  mind.  This  has  been  singularly  marked. 
The  Lollard  spirit,  like  the  Lollard  traditions, 
has  never  entirely  died  out  of  its  old  haunts  among 
the  Chilterns.  It  showed  itself  in  the  yeomen 
who  marched  to  London  to  protect  John  Hamp- 
den on  the  threatened  arrest  of  the  Five  Members, 
and  in  the  Greencoats  who  marched  under  the 
same  patriot's  banner,  with  its  haughty  motto, 
Vestigia  nulla  retrorsnm.  It  showed  itself  not 
less  clearly  in  the  patient  endurance  of 
persecution  by  the  early  Baptists,  and  by 
the  peaceful  Quakers  whose  remains  lie  be- 
neath the  linden-trees  of  Jordans,  and  many  of 
the  peculiarities  of  both  these  sects  may  be  traced 
back  to  the  Lollards.  It  shows  itself  to  this  day 
in  the  deep-rooted  love  of  religious  freedom  which 


JOHN    KNOX  183 

marks  the  inhabitants  of  some  of  the  upland  vil- 
lages, a  love  ingrained  in  their  very  nature  by 
the  habits  and  traditions  of  half-a-thousand  years. 

A  very  surprising  statement  appeared  in  a  letter 
to  the  Academy  of  April,  15th,  1893,  by  Mr. 
Wentworth  Webster.     He  says  : — 

"  In   the  year   1849   or  1850   I  was   laid    up 
for  a  week  from  an  accident  in  riding  at  a  lonely 
farm-house,   Eow  Wood,  between    Chalfont    St. 
Giles  and  Chenies.     The  old  woman  who  waited 
on  me,   the  only  inmate  of  the  house  except  a 
friend  of  the  same  age  as  myself,  called  herself 
an  Old  Methodist.      I   soon  discovered  that   she 
looked  upon  the  reformed  Church  of  England  as 
a  comparatively  modern  sect,  and  asserted  that 
the  body  to  which  she  belonged  had  received  the 
Gospel  long  before,  and  that  they  were  descen- 
dants of  the  old  Lollards.     She  indignantly  re- 
pudiated  any  connection  with   Wesley's  Metho- 
dism.    The  only  books  in  the  house  were  two  or 
three  tracts  belonging  to  the  old  woman.     These 
I  read.     The  oldest  of  them  dated  from  the  last 
century,    and    referred    to    an  attempt   of  Lady 
Huntingdon  to  include   these   Old  or   Primitive 
Methodists  in  her  Connexion.    Her  advances  had 
been    repelled,    and    the    same   statement    made 
which    the  old  woman    repeated  to  me.        This 
small   sect   had    then    some   kind    of    chapel  or 
meeting-room    in    Chalfont    and  in    Amershara, 
and  was  said  to  be  more  numerous  in  the  counties 
bordering  on  Wales.    How  far  this  is  historically 
true,  or  whether  the  little  body,  with  its  tradi- 


184  THE    LOLLAEDS 

tions  of  descent  from  the  Lollards  still  exists,  I 
cannot  say.  Only  I  distinctly  assert  that  such  a 
body  making  such  claims  did  exist,  both  in  the 
last  century  and  about  1850." 

There  are  several  points  in  Mr.  Webster's 
account,  and  especially  his  use  of  the  term  "  Pri- 
mitive Methodists,"  which  would  suggest  to  those 
most  famihar  with  Nonconformist  history  that  he 
must  have  misunderstood  the  old  lady  and  her 
tracts.  Nor  have  I  been  able  to  discover  any  trace 
or  memory  of  the  sect  he  describes ;  while  the  old 
lady  herself  appears  to  have  been  a  respected 
member  of  the  Congregational  church  at  Chalfont 
St.  Giles  !  Still  I  am  far  from  asserting  that  all 
his  statements  are  erroneous ;  and  it  is  a  curious 
fact  that  both  in  the  Tenison  MSS.  in  the  Lam- 
beth Library,  and  in  the  Browne  Willis  MSS.  in 
the  Bodleian,  there  are  vague  indications  of  the 
existence  of  some  peculiar  sect  at  Chalfont  St. 
Giles  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  cen- 
turies. 

But  the  most  lasting  heritage  bequeathed  by 
the  Lollards  is  not  to  be  found  in  sects  and 
denominations,  or  even  in  doctrinal  protests 
against  Eomish  error,  but  in  the  yet  unspent 
moral  force  which  resulted  from  their  life  and 
work.  For  after  all,  their  protest  was  quite  as 
much  ethical  as  doctrinal.  The  striking  words 
of  Archbishop  Trench  in  his  Lectures  on  Medi- 
ceval  Church  History  (p.  259)  are  almost  as 
applicable  to  the  English  Lollards  as  to  the 
Waldenses  : — 


JOHN    KNOX  185 

"  If  any  one  turns  to  these  authoritative  wri- 
tings of  the  Waldenses,  expecting  to  find  in  them 
the  fulness  and  freeness  of  the  PauHne  teaching 
on  the  propitiatory  work  of  Christ,  or  the  forgive- 
ness of  sin  on  our  justification  by  faith  in  Him, 
he  will  be  disappointed.  He  will  find  the  supre- 
macy of  Holy  Scripture  asserted  as  against  every 
teaching  and  tradition  of  men  ;  but  the  prevailing 
type  of  doctrine  is  more  that  of  St.  James  than 
that  of  St.  Paul.  Nor  is  this  very  strange.  That, 
as  we  have  seen,  which  constituted  the  very  heart 
and  kernel  of  the  Waldensian  movement  was  not 
opposition  to  any  doctrine  taught  in  the  Church 
of  Rome,  but  a  desire,  first  stirred  up  through 
the  reading  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  after  the 
highest  form  of  Christian  life,  and  that  nearest 
to  the  apostolic  ideal.  Only  by  degrees,  and  not 
until  they  had  been  cast  out,  did  the  Waldenses 
discover  that  doctrinally  also  much  was  amiss  in 
that  body  which  had  so  violently  separated  them 
from  itself.  And  even  then  it  was  the  corruptions 
standing  in  the  way  of  a  high  and  holy  living 
which  called  forth  their  strongest  protests — indul- 
gences,   Purgatory it    was    these    and 

similar  abuses,  abating  as  they  did  the  moral 
earnestness  with  which  men  should  work  out 
their  salvation,  which  aroused  their  most  indig- 
nant remonstrances." 

The  Lollards  w^ere  pioneers  in  the  path  of 
religious,  social,  and  political  reform.  All  Eng- 
land owes  them  a  debt  of  gratitude  for  the  liberties 
which  they  purchased  with  their  blood  and  tears, 


186  THE    LOLLAEDS 

and  not  the  least  should  the  county  of  Bucking- 
ham honour  their  memory  along  with  those  of 
the  worthies  associated  with  her  story  at  a 
later  day — Hampden  and  Sydney,  Milton  and 
Penn. 


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